Top 20 Christmas print adverts from around the world

FESPA gets into the festive spirit by taking a look at some of the most creative and imaginative Christmas adverts.

Is it really that time of year again? While many of us will be busy digging the fairy lights out the attic, making last-minute trips to the shops and hiding the scales for a few weeks whilst we tuck into all those Christmas treats, print companies will be busy working on their final projects of the year and meeting deadlines.

Print plays a major role at this time of year, with retailers looking to appeal to as many consumers as possible to capture their business.

Be it posters or leaflets, magazine adverts or stickers, or billboards and point-of-sale, printed adverts can be found all over the place at Christmas time.

Here, we look at some of the best examples of printed Christmas ads and analyse how creative brands and agencies can be.

Printing a festive picture with Dulux

Designer: Dulux

Description: Amidst the many colourful and loud adverts we get this time of year, sometimes, simplicity is the best approach. Here, Dulux has simply used its paint to create a rough outline of a Christmas tree, in order to wish consumers a happy Christmas!

Picture: Courtesy of Dulux

Holidays are comin’ with Coca-Cola

Designer: Coca-Cola

Description: Although perhaps bets know for its famous Christmas lorries, Coca-Cola also came up with this simple, yet clever advert, transforming one of its cans into a somewhat abstract version of Santa Claus.

Picture: Courtesy of Coca-Cola

Happy Hanukkah from McDonald’s

Designer: McDonalds

Description: One company ‘lovin’ it’ at Christmas time is McDonald’s, which used its famous French fries to recreate a Hanukkah menorah.

Picture: Courtesy of McDonald’s

Rockin’ around the…coffee tree?

Designer: Starbucks

Description: A popular pit stop for tired Christmas shoppers around the world, Starbucks celebrates this time of year with its festive red cups. However, the coffee store chain even gets creative with the toppings on its drinks, making a coffee and cream Christmas tree in this advert.

Picture: Courtesy of Starbucks

Sharpening up your ideas at Christmas time

Designer: Publicis Singapore

Description: While advertising agencies may be busy creating adverts for other companies, Publicis Singapore used its skills to promote its own services.

Here, the agency wishes consumers and clients a happy Christmas by creating a Christmas tree from sharpening a pencil, which features engraved text that reads, “Every good ideas begins with a pencil”.

Picture: Courtesy of Publicis Singapore

Walking in the Swiss Air…

Designer: Nikolaya Pere

Description: Keeping with the Christmas tree theme, Russian designer Nikolaya Pere came up with a creative series, turning aircraft into festive foliage. Here is an example featuring Swiss Air.

Picture: Courtesy of Swiss Air

Delivering the right message at Christmas time

Designer: FedEx

Description: Christmas trees do seem to be a popular choice amongst advertising agencies! Here, FedEx, which is very busy at this time of year delivering gifts to people around the world, stacks up boxes to make its very own Christmas tree.

Picture: Courtesy of FedEx

Star of wonder, star of Ikea

Designer: TBWA (Portugal)

Description: Portuguese agency TBWA came up with this clever idea to promote an pre-Christmas sale at Ikea.

Picture: Courtesy of TBWA

Sweetening Christmas with Quality Street

Designer: Quality Street

Description: There’s nothing like a box, or rather a tin, of chocolates for a last-minute Christmas present, with Quality Street being one of the most popular choices. Here, chocolates have been spread out on the floor to form the shape of a reindeer’s head.

Picture: Courtesy of Quality Street

Ho Ho Hovis

Designer: JWT London

Description: Simple yet effective; the JWT London agency came up with this idea to help Hovis wish its customers a happy Christmas. By positioning three loaves of bread at certain angles, the usual ‘Hovis’ wording instead says ‘Ho Ho Ho’ the world famously said by Santa Claus. 

Picture: Courtesy of Hovis

Colourful and creative a Christmas

Designer: Age Comunicacoes Sao Paulo

Description: One for the graphic designers; Burti Graphics used a green Pantone palette to create an abstract Christmas tree.

Picture: Courtesy of Burti Graphics

Harvey Nichols fights the ‘Gift Face’

Designer: Harvey Nicholls / adam&eveDDB

Description: There’s nothing quite like the awkwardness of making out you are happy with a rubbish gift. This year, Harvey Nichols has been urging consumers to avoid making the ‘Gift Face’ by shopping with the retailer to find the perfect present for loved ones.

Picture: Courtesy of Harvey Nichols

Turning the Tide on a white Christmas

Designer: Tide

Description: International laundry detergent brand Tide based its advert around how its product can remove stains of all kinds, including ink stains in the shape of Christmas trees. Consumers will now be able to enjoy a truly White Christmas.

Picture: Courtesy of Webneel.com

Pizza for Christmas dinner anyone?

Designer: Zonazero

Description: Domino’s Pizza in Mexico ran a creative print campaign showcasing one of its pizza slices as a Christmas tree.

Picture: Courtesy of Domino’s

A timely reminder from Greenpeace

Designer: Greenpeace

Description: While people around the world will be looking forward to presents, food and parties, Greenpeace took out this ad as to remind us about the dangers of global warming. The poor snowman in the snow globe is nothing more than a hat, scarf, carrot and a few small rocks.

Picture: Courtesy of Greenpeace

Watch out for the dog, Santa!

Designer: TBWA Copenhagen

Description: Dog food brand Pedigree warned Santa Claus that he may meet a four-legged friend or two during his annual trip down chimneys around the world.

Picture: Courtesy of Pedigree

We three Kings are…here too early

Designer: Mercedes-Benz

Description: Mercedes-Benz seems to think that if the wise men had one of their cars, their journey to see the birth of Christ may have been a little easier. They may also have been able to use sat-nav, rather than follow he star,

Picture: Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

Budweiser and Uber call for safety first this Christmas

Designer: Budweiser/Uber

Description: This year, Budweiser has teamed up with transport company Uber to offer UK consumers a safe way of getting around during the festive season. The campaign, which runs across various channels, offers customers a free first Uber ride worth up to £15 (€18/$19) when using a special code.

Picture: Courtesy of Budweiser/Uber

A sweet holiday treat from M&M’s

Designer: BBDO New York

Description: Poor Rudolph! The most well known of all Santa’s reindeer had his famous red nose replaced with a red M&M…

Picture: Courtesy of M&M’s

Absolut fun at Christmas time

Designer: Absolut

Description: Christmas is a time for food and drink of all kinds, as vodka brand Absolut demonstrates here by dressing one of its bottles as a Christmas tree.

Picture: Courtesy of Absolut

While Christmas is seen as a time of celebration, it is also time to reflect on the past year and look ahead to what the next 12 months may have in store for us.

Here in the print industry, we have plenty to look forward to next year, including the main FESPA global print expo, which takes palce from May 15-18 at the Messe Berlin in Germany. The exhibition will welcome hundreds of exhibitors from across the global market, addressing all key areas of the industry.

To find out more about the event, visit: www.fespaglobalprintexpo.com