Are British chains better storytellers than American retailers?

Every retailer has some story to tell about its brand. Some do it quite well and others not so much. Two things seem clear from the increasing number of Christmas commercials popping up on YouTube and elsewhere: British retailers have vastly more interesting stories to tell than their American counterparts and, by and large, people are attracted by interesting stories.

Just going by the numbers (YouTube's) you can see that popular spots from British chains are way ahead of U.S. retailers.

John Lewis' "Monty the Penguin" took in over 16 million views in two weeks. Sainsbury's controversial new commercial has over 10 million views in about a week's time. Burberry's "From London With Love" has been viewed by over seven million in a couple of weeks. Even Tesco's "Lights On" has nearly 600,000 views.

By comparison, Walmart's "Showtime" commercial, which debuted on Halloween, has 2.2 million views. RadioShack's "Toyland" spot starring Weird Al Yankevoich has 119,000 views, while Target's excellent "Alice in Marshmallow Land" has about 60,000. Best Buy's "Our Best" commercial has 32K+ views and Big Lots' "Nailing This" has just over 8,000.

• The Moving, Troubling Sainsbury's Christmas Ad - Slate
• Complaints flood in over Sainsbury's Christmas in the trenches advert: Viewers' anger over use of WWI to promote supermarket - The Daily Mail
• Christmas Comes Early for Brands on YouTube - Adweek