MAA blast from the past: ‘Christmas is for sharing’ from Sainsbury’s in 2014 (and 1914)

A hiatus now in Christmas ads (have they all shot their bolt before December?) but here’s one that still resonates with some: Sainsbury’s ‘Christmas is for sharing’ from 2014, the centenary of 1914, from AMV BBDO.

At the time Omnicom siblings AMV and adam&eveDDB were locked in a 1914-style fierce rivalry over the best and biggest Christmas ads, AMV for Sainsbury’s and A&E for John Lewis. We hacks would be summoned to view the latest offering (tricky if you didn’t like it.)

This has worn pretty well though. At first glance the fabled football game between British and German soldiers on the Western Front on the first Christmas Day of the 1914-18 war seemed on unlikely opportunity for a supermarket but Sainsbury’s tied in an impressive film with sales of retro-style chocolate bars, as in the closing scenes.

The best TV ad ever made, as our YouTuber has it? Perhaps not but rather doubt that an agency in London these days would even try it.