November is underway and that can mean only one thing: Christmas consumerism is in full swing. While the John Lewis Christmas advert, the klaxon that the season has officially begun, is expected to air on Friday, take heart, Topshop and Burberry are starting the seasonal ad onslaught in style.
Both brands released their Christmas campaigns on Tuesday, targeting different audiences. Burberry doesn’t do things by halves, Christmas is worth blowing the budget to make customers to do the same. Its Christmas campaign, the Tale of Thomas Burberry, is a short film to mark 160 years of the brand, starring Dominic West, Sienna Miller, Lily James and directed by Asif Kapadia, the man behind Amy. It manages to amp up the brand’s heritage, making the story of the founder Thomas Burberry look as if it’s worthy of a feature film.
Watching this feels less like an advert and more like a popcorn-and-coke trailer. It has romance, with Sienna Miller as Burberry’s wife, drama with West as Sir Ernest Shackleton, the explorer, and first world war soldiers in trench coats, plus– spoiler alert – a flirtation with aviator Betty Dawson, a fictionalised version of the real-life Betty Kirby Green. It leaves you wanting to watch the non-existent full-length version – and buy a classic trench coat. As expected from a shrewd brand that pioneered streaming runway shows and the see now buy now model, you can “shop the film” online.
Topshop has stuck to stills but its campaign speaks directly to their younger consumer, supplying squad party dresses to slay those of any rivals. The ad features not one but nine models, going for the multi-model trend also seen in ads for Net-A-Porter, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. In a Christmas context, this is less about a brand not being able to make up its mind on one woman to represent it for a season, and more about bringing the party – and the party clothes.
This group of diverse, smiling girls look as if they would be great to head out with, don’t they? Your gang includes sister-of-Kate Lottie Moss, catwalk favourites Damaris Goddrie and Marjan Jonkman, and Victoria Secret’s model Stella Maxwell. Our favourite is Londone Myers, mainly because she was a postmortem assistant before becoming a model. They wear everything from a velvet suit (Jonkman), camisole and skirt (Moss), jeans and bomber (Myers) and sequin dress (Maxwell), all outfits perfect for wrapping up under the tree or solving a Christmas party wardrobe crisis. Either way, this is an image designed to get the tills ringing. Job done.
With Christmas a key money-spinner, these campaigns don’t just serve to acclimatise you to the tinsel-and-fairylights season. They’re the final push to get you spending– both to play it safe, and add a bit of razzledazzle. It’s a combination that is perfect for Christmas, a time of year that is as much about cosy comfort as it is about glamour.
