Aldi's 'overcooked' holiday ad actually seems underdone

Ad Nut looks forward to Aldi Australia's holiday ad, which is usually a fun, off-kilter indication that the season is upon us.

Stretching back to 2012, when the brand's first major holiday campaign carved out a mark with surfing santas, the brand and longtime partner BMF have brought us:

• The tale of a man who brings strange Aussie Christmas traditions back to his far-northern hometown (2014)
• A madcap, quick-cut look at frantic holiday prep (2015)
• A Santa who crash lands in the outback and learns about the real meaning of the season (2018), and
• A miracle ham (2019).

Even last year's synchronised swimming Santas were charming.

The brand's slogan is 'Good different' and its ads are normally both of those things. But this year's 'You can't overcook Christmas' campaign is neither. It's devoid of the spark of creativity we've become accustomed to. It's not amusing. The supposedly amazing things the cast members do when they kick into hyper-Christmas mode seem forced and...banal. It simply falls flat. It's a bummer.

Perhaps it's just as well. As Ad Nut's legions of devoted readers know, Ad Nut got a little too obsessed with holiday ads in the past. OK, a lot too obsessed. Following an intervention by dear friends, Ad Nut now tries to remain calm, and a great Aldi ad might have kicked off a seasonal frenzy of overindulgence like that which Ad Nut spiraled into in 2016 and 2017. Shudder.

If you want more Christmas-themed ads, we've posted a few recently, and our UK colleagues seem to be emulating Ad Nut's past excesses.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.