AMV BBDO’s Christmas ad, The Greatest Gift, for Sainsbury’s is being praised for everything. And rightly so. It’s a musical theatre-style film, three and a half minutes long, in which the hero dad works out how to give his family the greatest gift of all – himself.
It discusses an almost universal issue in 21st century households – time for one’s family, it’s upbeat, its song is performed by James Corden, it celebrates multi-racial families…and the campaign will raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital’s charity with profits from a gingerbread “Dave” and an animation kit, available for £5, helping to fund accommodation for families near the hospital.
The ad is made in stop-frame animation by Passion Animation Studios. It was directed by British film director, screenwriter and animator, Sam Fell. The song, The Greatest Gift For Christmas Is Me, was composed by comedian, musician and producer, Bret McKenzie, who won the 2012 Oscar for best original song in The Muppets and is one half of Flight of the Conchords.
More than 180 people worked on the production of the film. The set took 16 weeks to build, 420 hours to shoot (every shot has to be filmed at a quarter of a second a time for stop frame animation) and eight weeks of post-production. The puppets were laser-printed, made by Mackinnon and Saunders, the Manchester company behind Fantastic Mr Fox.
The full length (3.20 minutes) advert made its TV debut on Monday night, November14, during ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!
The Greatest Gift is AMV BBDO’s last hurrah as far as Sainsbury’s is concerned. The account will move to W&K London in January after 40 years.
Credits:
Agency: AMV BBDO
Creative directors: Toby Allen & Jim Hilson
Creatives: Richard McGrann & Andy Clough
Production company: Passion Pictures
Director: Sam Fell
Puppet makers: Mackinnon & Saunders
Production designer: Andy Farago @ Clockwork Frog
