Customers describe their favorite mouth-watering treats in Marks & Spencer's unscripted Christmas food ads

Marks & Spencer is well-known in the U.K. for its legacy of "food porn" style ads featuring sumptuously styled mouthwatering dishes, usually described in come-hither style via a sexy celebrity voiceover. However, this year it's taken a different approach for its holiday campaign-- getting real life customers, and employees, to describe their "M&S Christmas favorites." The first of several films by creative agency Grey London, seen here, features people describing the M&S sprouts (a "game-changer"), mince pies ("like a hug on the inside") and the chocolate acorns ("I think you have to be lying down for those). The campaign was directed by Charlie Stebbings at Rogue on the food side, with Neil Gorringe at Moxie handling the people. It's a more down-to-earth approach for Marks & Spencer; while the food still looks delicious, the approach is more reality TV than high-end luxury (think "Gogglebox" but with critiques of food instead of TV) and the ads will encourage the nation to join the conversation and share their Christmas food favorites using the hashtag #MyMarksFave. The series includes three 60 second ads and nine 30 second ads, linking to customers' Christmas food shopping patterns. In-store, displays will show managers' favorites with the #MyMarksFave signage, and employees will show off their own favorite products on name badges. The retailer (which last week announced a fall in sales for both food and clothing for the six months to September 29) also launched a TV spot for its clothing and homewares themed around holiday "Must-Haves," starring TV presenter Holly Willoughby and model David Gandy and set to "Give a Little Love" by Tom Jones.

Customers describe their favorite mouth-watering treats in Marks & Spencer's unscripted Christmas food ads

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