Sainsbury's Christmas advert is like a 4-minute 'f*** you' to John Lewis and Monty the penguin

Advert focuses on the Christmas Truce of 1914

Christopher Hooton
Thursday 13 November 2014 09:35 GMT
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While John Lewis opted for a mawkish story about a lonely penguin in its latest Christmas advert, Sainsbury's shunned CGI and product placement to tell the story of the Christmas truce on the Western Front during World War One.

Fittingly given the Great War's centenary was marked this year, the four-minute advert takes place entirely in the trenches, as soldiers on opposing sides down arms to play a game of football.

Yes they're still ultimately trying to get you to buy parsnips, but as commercials for supermarkets go it's pretty moving stuff, and while Sainsbury's could have cheaply cashed in on the war it seems they put in a good amount of research.

"The ad is extremely powerful. A number of things really struck me, one is the attention to detail that's gone into the historical research," said Charles Byrne, Director of Fundraising at the Royal British Legion.

"Whether it's the chap being shaved, whether it's the cap badges, even the build of the trenches, proper respect has gone into it."

The chocolate bar that features in the advert will be on sale for £1 with all profits going to charity, a somewhat cheaper piece of advert memorabilia than John Lewis' £95 Monty penguin.

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