James Norton plays a beardless Santa in the M&S Christmas advert
For the first time since 2017, food, fashion, home and beauty share one festive campaign, with Lucy Punch as Mrs Claus and a soundtrack from Katherine Jenkins.
Santa shaves off his beard and swaps the red suit for a Christmas jumper in this year's Marks & Spencer advert, so that he can slip out of the North Pole and see how everyone else celebrates.
James Norton plays the undercover Father Christmas and Lucy Punch is Mrs Claus, who encourages him to go. Katherine Jenkins makes a special appearance and sings a new recording of Heaven Is a Place on Earth for the soundtrack, which M&S is releasing as a single on the same day.
The film, called The Home of Christmas, went live on M&S's Instagram page and YouTube channel at 7am on Friday 6 November. Its first TV airing was during ITV's This Morning at 10.15am.
One campaign instead of several
Rather than getting separate adverts, food, fashion, home and beauty all appear in a single campaign, something M&S last did in 2017. The film was directed by Shannon Murphy for the creative agency Mother.
Without the beard, Santa joins in with the meals, presents and traditions going on in homes around the country. Among the products featured in the campaign, M&S lists:
- an Oakham turkey crown with Italian chestnut, pancetta and Calabrian orange stuffing at £70
- a sequin dress at £45
- an Autograph pure cashmere scarf at £55
- an M&S x Kelly Hoppen Christmas Joy candle at £25
The storyline draws on M&S's own customer research, in which 81% of its shoppers said they wanted a special Christmas with the people they love and 68% said food was what made the season feel special.
M&S also says it sells nearly three mince pies a second over the festive period, 1,800 Christmas jumpers a day and a pair of pyjamas every four seconds in the run-up to Christmas, and that one in three Christmas turkeys sold in the UK comes from M&S.
The advert will run on TV, video on demand, in cinemas, outdoors, on radio and in print as well as on social media.
