We’ve had the bouncy John Lewis boxer, Waitrose’s heartwarming migrant robin and Aldi’s plucky carrot. But this is 2016, the year where the good perished and the wicked triumphed, as a political class of swivel-eyed loons swept to power on a wave of memes and made-up headlines.
And so, welcome to TK Maxx’s vision of Christmas, minus any cutesy characters. A glass-eyed family gather around the piano to gargle, blare, yodel and beatbox their way through a terrifying rendition of Dick Dale’s Misirlou, all screams, bulging eyeballs and frozen smiles.
Although the strapline claims “Christmas is best when it’s more surprising,” this will be a fairly familiar picture to many. It’s the only festive advert that acknowledges the true horror of the season: being around people you can’t stand, forcing jollity as another episode of Mrs Browns Boys begins.
This is the Christmas where the TK Maxx Santa’s grotto has Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now dropping Chef’s severed head in your lap. It’s a howl into the abyss. It’s the Christmas advert 2016 deserves. Plus, the clothes don’t look too shabby, either.
