All the big brands have now released their Christmas spectaculars and, as usual, very little expense has been spared. Here’s a quick rundown of the biggest ads and who directed, produced and post produced them.

The big focus at this time of year is always on the John Lewis offering and the retailer’s agency Adam & Eve/DDB brought back Blink’s Dougal Wilson to direct his fourth Christmas spot for the brand. Buster The Boxer and his animal chums were created by MPC with Jean Clement Soret providing the grade.

Sainsbury’s stop frame spectacular The Greatest Gift, set to a song written by Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie and sung by James Corden, was ordered through Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and was directed by Sam Fell and an army of animators at Passion. The puppets were made by Mackinnon and Saunders of course.

Marks and Spencer’s cinematic effort was directed by The King’s Speech and The Danish Girl director Tom Hooper of Smuggler. Post was at The Mill with Seamus O’Kane the colourist, The Quarry’s Paul Watts cut the spot and the score was composed by Rachel Portman.

Waitrose’s tale of a returning Robin was directed by Rogue’s Sam Brown with post-production by The Mill. The agency was Adam & Eve/DDB.

Aldi’s animated Kevin the Carrot ad was directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick at Psyop/Stink through McCannUK. John Mayes at Marshall Street cut the ad

Argos went with a team of iceskating Yetis this time. The ad was directed by Caviar’s Henry Scholfield through CHI. Electric Theatre Collective provided post.

Burberry has really gone for a big screen treatment with The tale of Thomas Burberry with a cast including Sienna Miller, Lily James, Dominic West and Domhnall Gleeson. It was directed by Asif Kapadia at production house Black Label and posted at The Mill.

TK Maxx brought in Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks to direct The Sing Song in which a family bash out an a capella version of The Pulp Fiction theme. Electric Theatre Collective took on the post production. Ben Campbell at Cut and Run edited the ad.

Jon Creamer

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