M&S' star studded Christmas campaign encourages shoppers to ditch tedious tasks
Halloween is over and Christmas has arrived, or so says Marks and Spencer’s holiday campaign, which goes live today on television screens nationwide.
The British retailer’s television campaign is one of the most highly anticipated of the season, and the wait is over. It is set across four different homes, each of which features a British household name. The star-studded list taking centre stage includes singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, actresses Zawe Ashton and Hannah Waddingham and TV star Tan France.
Stuart Machin, Managing Director at M&S, took to LinkedIn to write: "As you may have seen in our stores, at M&S we’ve been getting in the Christmas spirit for a while now! This will ramp up after Remembrance Sunday. But with 54 days to go, today we’re sharing our Christmas advert for our Clothing & Home business."
The campaign was created by newly appointed creative agency MOTHER and director Ally Pankiw, best known for Feel Good and Black Mirror.
The storyline invites viewers to embrace the things they love about Christmas and to skip the chores that they don’t. Featuring a series of humorous scenes, each of the cast can be seen facing an amusing dilemma in a relatable reference to the pressures we often face in the run-up to Christmas.
Anna Braithwaite, M&S Clothing & Home Marketing Director, said: "I’m sure everyone watching our ad will be able to relate to our fabulous cast of talent who so hilariously bring to life those little moments and dilemmas we all have at Christmas time!
"Before we created Love Thismas (Not Thatmas), we spoke to hundreds of our customers and they all told us that, at Christmas, they feel this pressure of having to worry about and plan so many things. We know it can often feel like the list is never-ending so this year we decided to celebrate and empower our customers to just do the things they love."
Within TV advertising, the advert premieres at 9pm during Payback on ITV today. In addition, the advert will also feature across several podcast sponsorships, including Table Manners, Closet Confessions and more.
On working with M&S, TV personality Tan France commented: "I’ve loved M&S since I was a child, and so to be included in this campaign is such an exciting moment for me. I love celebrating Christmas with my kids and all the festivities that come with it (yes - even those home-made decorations!), and I’m so excited to share this campaign with them – they love going into M&S when we’re back in the UK, so they’ll be super excited when they see the ad."
Singer Sophie Ellis Bextor added: "My kids all still love the magic of Christmas, so it’s a really exciting time in our household – we love hosting Christmas, so having a house-full is when I’m happiest. We’ve got so many Christmas traditions in our family, which we add to each year – it’s always busy for us, and I love it that way! Being able to be a part of one of the biggest TV ad campaigns of the year is so exciting, I can’t wait to see it go live!"
