Patreon’s mob boss Santa and Aldi’s carrot wedding lead the week’s festive ads

Patreon's furious Santa, the wedding of Aldi's carrots and Brach's reinvention of candy canes as forbidden loot were among the week's more unusual festive campaigns.

Brach's: ‘Decorations you can’t not eat’

Brach's and Rethink have built a holiday campaign on the observation that people do not so much hang candy canes as raid them. The film shows a father and his children stealthily taking canes off the tree like small-time festive criminals, which lends the brand a light and mischievous tone that will be familiar to anyone who has tried to keep sweets on display beyond 10 December.

The pair also made The Cane Opener, a real device designed to open a wrapper in one clean movement. It addresses a common seasonal frustration and gives the brand a playful product to sell at TheCaneOpener.com, extending the idea beyond the ad.

The campaign runs across social, OTT and online video, supported by H5 and iProspect. “Everyone loves the look of candy canes on the tree but Brach's are so good they never make it to Christmas morning,” said Matt Escalante, VP of Brach's and Seasonal.

Tara Lawall of Rethink pointed out that Christmas lights are inedible, but the decorations that matter can be eaten. The work establishes a refreshed holiday platform within the brand's wider partnership with the agency.

Patreon: ‘Santa hates Patreon’

Patreon handed its holiday brief entirely to creators. The resulting short stars comedian Stavros “Stavvy” Halkias as a stressed Santa running his operation like a crime boss, watching his empire falter as people choose Patreon memberships over physical presents.

Made with Daniel Thrasher, the film has the rough, improvised energy of work written and shaped by creators themselves.

After a season of relentless promotional emails, many people are tired of buying things that will not last. Patreon pitches memberships as presents that last, using Santa's meltdown to show why people want something different.

Mike McGarry, SVP of marketing at Patreon, said the company wanted a message that reflected the people behind the platform. “We’d rather put the spotlight on creators. They make ideas AI can’t touch, original, weird, deeply human.”

The film is deliberately odd and feels handmade, the kind of work that comes straight from the community Patreon serves.

Spotify Wrapped's first UK TV ad

Spotify's first UK TV ad for Wrapped, directed by KC Locke, brings together Lewis Capaldi, Central Cee, PinkPantheress, Kingfishr, Nemzzz and Sasha Keable, with cameos from figures including Louis Theroux. The effect is of a busy night out where everyone fits in the same room.

The ad takes over a full ad break of I'm A Celebrity on 3 December and then appears on ITVX, putting Wrapped in front of viewers during one of the busiest TV moments of the year.

Pop-ups in London and Manchester celebrate leading artists, including Jade appearing in a perspex box on the Southbank, a phone booth near Tower Bridge wrapped in tartan and a mural honouring Oasis. Wrapped Party turns listening stats into a social game, and the design draws on the DIY audio culture of the 1980s and 1990s.

Deutsche Telekom's Stranger Things reunion

Deutsche Telekom has reunited the four original Stranger Things boys for MagentaTV in a detailed recreation of Mike's basement. Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo attempt to build a machine that delivers “infinite hours” of fight scenes from 1980s films, a premise that allows plenty of nostalgia without rehashing the show's plots.

The look was recreated with help from cinematographer Lachlan Milne and the show's original set designer, Sean Brennan, and the machine was built as a working prop. Hundreds of handmade VHS tapes sit on the shelves next to licensed titles such as Commando, Alien, E.T., Back to the Future and The Empire Strikes Back.

The ad uses Billy Squier's ‘Lonely is the night’ and is running on TV, radio, video on demand, outdoor and social, presenting MagentaTV as the place where all formats come together.

Aldi's carrot wedding

Aldi has brought its decade-long Christmas story to a close with the wedding of Kevin and Katie the Carrot. The McCann Manchester ad opens with best man Kelvin rushing to rescue the day, only for another problem to emerge as the ceremony starts, giving it the rhythm of a holiday special in which everything hangs by a thread.

Carrot children, the bridal party and the Cauli Dog take their places before another twist unsettles Katie. Kevin responds with a musical number that rescues the story and delivers the emotional payoff the trilogy has been building to.

The ad is backed by activity across social, print, radio and digital, including competitions, short-form video and a partnership with ITV hosted by Scarlett Moffatt.

The finale treats the carrot universe as established lore for viewers who now watch the annual film as a seasonal ritual, and gives the series a clear closing bow.

Clash Royale's nine-minute film

Clash Royale has given players the full film they have long requested: a nine-minute piece from Uncommon Stockholm in which each scene was handed to a different production company. The style shifts from heavy-metal stop-motion to 1980s dark fantasy to the sugar rush of a 1990s toy advert, reflecting the fast and unpredictable way fans experience the game.

Seven studios worked independently, given nothing more than character lists, starting points and loose transitions. “This is a celebration of craft. No AI has been used, just creative minds collaborating under one very simple premise,” said Uncommon Stockholm's executive creative director, Max Hultberg. The result is a single unbroken fight scene that launches the game's four new Heroes.

Each handover in the relay makes the story stranger, and the film shows that the game still has creative ambition to spare.

Publicis Groupe at 100

Publicis Groupe is marking its centenary, which falls next year, with this year's Wishes film. The nine-minute piece begins in the Second World War and follows the company's lion mascot through periods of growth and disruption, narrated by Edith Piaf. It comes across as a short period drama rather than a seasonal greeting.

Combining live action, actors and AI, it revisits key episodes such as the seizure of Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet's businesses during the war and the long rebuild that followed, with scenes linked to clients such as L'Oréal, Renault, Shell and Colgate-Palmolive.

The film presents the company's first century as one of repeated rebuilding and reinvention, and places its people at the heart of its second century and the arrival of AI.

Arthur Sadoun describes the film as an odyssey reflecting the company's endurance. “A lion never gives up,” he said.