M&S: 2021 Christmas Advert

M&S unveiled its 2021 Christmas commercials. M&S is launching two Christmas campaigns – one for its festive food and one for its Christmas clothing. With 50 days to go until Christmas Eve, the campaigns are launching as customers are well underway planning for Christmas – with nearly half of them expecting to have finished their Christmas gift shopping by the end of the month (earlier than usual) and ‘create your own’ wreaths, table centres and flowers all selling incredibly well already.

Both campaigns are part of wider efforts to change perceptions of M&S as part of the retailer’s reshape. In Food, value has been a big focus and M&S’s value perception is now +8pts vs. 2019 driven by campaigns such as “Remarksable”.

The Food campaign sees the iconic Percy Pig, a brand M&S continues to build ahead of his 30th birthday next year, brought to life for the very first time through market-leading animation. Percy, voiced by Tom Holland (known from Spider-Man: Homecoming), is awakened in the dead of night by the magic of the Christmas fairy played by Dawn French. Percy excitedly explores the Stratford Foodhall discovering all the magic M&S Food has to offer this Christmas – from the Collection Golden Blond Christmas Pudding to Delicate Smoked Salmon.

True to M&S’s focus on putting Food products front and center of campaigns, these delicious items are presented to emphasize the unbeatable quality of M&S Food. Experts from across the industry worked together on creating the advert – from the composer for the bespoke track to creatives at Grey London, to leading animators at MPC.

Sharry Cramond, Director of Marketing for M&S Food, said: “The M&S Christmas Food range this year is better than ever and who better to tell customers about our delicious Christmas food range than the national treasure and much-loved M&S icon himself, Percy Pig. Of course, he couldn’t have just any voice and having Tom Holland give Percy Pig his first words is about as exciting as it gets. Added to that the voice of the one and only Dawn French as the Christmas fairy – it’s the stuff of Christmas dreams!!”

The clothing campaign created by ODD, shot by Autumn de Wilde and starring Madisyn Ritland, brings to life a whimsical musical world with the star of the ad dancing through the iconic moments of Christmas – from shopping for presents to having fun in family PJs.

The advert is a continuation of the brand platform ‘Anything but Ordinary’ that M&S launched for Autumn/Winter. It shares how M&S’s style, quality, and value products (alongside the seamless experience it offers) can help customers make the magical season anything but ordinary for their loved ones.

As with the Food campaign, the creative will be executed across a range of channels – from print cover wraps to activation at Waterloo station. M&S will also be taking over three large-scale sites bringing to life some of the theatrical magic with hand-painted murals.

Within TV advertising, Video on Demand will continue to be key, and M&S will be the first UK retailer to use ‘Flowcode’ – an innovation that allows a QR code to be seamlessly worked into the advert.

Anna Braithwaite, M&S Clothing & Home Director said, “Our Clothing & Home products help make the season anything but ordinary – from fun family PJs for cozy nights in, to the chic velvet suit for the much-anticipated party season, to the best beautiful decorations for the Christmas tree. Our campaign, which we’ll be sharing across all customer channels, celebrates the joy of the season and showcases the one-stop shop M&S is for everything you need to make it special.”