The old saying about saving the best until last could hardly be more appropriate than it is for this year’s Christmas advertising line-up.
Marks & Spencer is the final department store to unveil its festive campaign and, unlike the effort from its biggest rival, John Lewis, it arrives without controversy and hits all the right notes.
In truth, the race for the best Christmas advert may have been decided months ago, when someone on the M&S creative team presumably suggested: “What about a bare-chested James Norton playing Santa Claus?” It is difficult to imagine a more effective pitch.
The complete three-minute commercial, released tomorrow and shown exclusively to Our News Outlet, begins with actress Lucy Punch – best known for playing ultra-snob Amanda Hughes in the BBC sitcom Amandaland – as Mrs Claus.
She is sitting in bed wearing an especially stylish pair of pink, sateen-striped pyjamas. The £35 set may well become the Christmas gift every husband in Britain is expected to buy for his wife.
At the North Pole, her weather-beaten husband, Santa, played by James Norton, is tending to his unmistakable bushy beard.
M&S has won over the ladies with a bare-chested James Norton in this year’s Christmas ad
In the ad, Norton (aka Santa Claus) shaves off his bed on the command of his wife
“I wonder, my love, have you ever considered losing the beard? They say it takes years off,” Mrs Claus asks.
“No! It’s my thing!” he protests.
Yet, keen to keep his wife happy, he eventually shaves it off – and emerges looking like a James Bond-style leading man.
Wrapped in nothing more than a skimpy bath towel, with his hairy chest and sculpted torso on show, he asks Mrs Claus for her verdict. “Saint Nicholas!” she exclaims, springing out of bed with delight.
Now virtually unrecognisable, Santa takes the opportunity to discover Christmas from an ordinary person’s perspective. He heads to London in a new leather jacket and red scarf.
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He visits a school concert, where singer Katherine Jenkins performs a festive cover of “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” in a sparkling sequinned dress – a guaranteed £45 bestseller. The track provides the soundtrack to the entire advert and is also being released as a single.
Lucy Punch (best known as super snob Amanda Hughes in BBC’s Amandaland) stars as Mrs Claus
Norton then travels to London donned in his new M&S leather jacket and red scarf
Santa then samples a buffet of M&S party food – the irresistible selection of “picky bits” that threatens to bankrupt us all by the end of December. He is welcomed at a neighbourhood gathering before finishing his London adventure with a visit to an M&S store.
“Wow, what is this place?” he asks in amazement, before filling his basket with goodies.
When he returns to the North Pole and tells Mrs Claus about his extraordinary discovery, she admits: “Oh darling, I’ve been going for years.”
Still delighted by her husband’s transformation, she tells him that the beard is gone for good and gives him a £22.50 Autograph shaving kit – the gift every dad may now find waiting beneath the tree on Christmas morning.
In past years, M&S has created separate Christmas campaigns for its different departments. This time, the retailer has united food, fashion, beauty and homeware in one campaign. Almost everything featured inside the Clauses’ cabin, from baubles to bath towels, is available to buy. I admit I was searching for those pyjamas online within minutes of seeing the advert.
The campaign is built around M&S’s ambition to become “the home of Christmas”, while embracing the idea that festive magic comes from spending time with the people we love.
The advert draws on M&S customer research showing that 81 per cent of people want to enjoy a special time with those closest to them. I suspect, however, that 100 per cent of female viewers would also be happy to see a shirtless James Norton on their television screens.
There are no badly behaved children wrecking houses, no damp-looking modern parents and no emotionally manipulated grandmothers.
Instead, this is a warm, feelgood Christmas advert that should leave most viewers – with the possible exception of a few John Lewis executives – smiling and feeling suitably festive.
