Star-studded Burberry, TK Maxx and Notonthehighstreet unwrap their Christmas goodies

The most hyped Christmas ad of the year is undoubtedly Burberry’s latest opus, paying tribute to British musical Billy Elliott with a host of stars – Elton John, Naomi Campbell, James Corden and little Romeo Beckham among them – leaping about Billy Elliott-style.

You can see the film, directed by Burberry CEO, creative director (and chief cook and bottlewasher for all I know) Christopher Bailey on Burberry’s YouTube channel here. Stills for the print campaign (above) by Mario Testino.

Well it’s better than last year’s four minutes of unbridled tosh. But where’s the idea? Suppose in fashion the style is the idea and this makes the point that stars look nice in Burberry.

MAA creative scale: 6.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the fashion spectrum, we have TK Maxx with an in-house offering in partnership with Quiet Storm.

There is indeed an idea plus a somewhat dodgy rendition of White Christmas by the great Otis Redding.

But it fails to convince, as most Christmas ads do.

MAA creative scale: 5.

And, finally, notonthehighstreet.com, from WCRS.

Notonthehighstreet majors on products from independent businesses, so, in theory, gifts should be more personal and original.

Well you get the point and there’s probably a good ad trying to get out. Something’s missing though. Most adam&eveDDB Christmas numbers have a bit of dark in them too. As did Mother’s wonderful ad for Boots last year. That’s what’s missing here.

MAA creative scale: 5.