Move aside Apple and John Lewis, BBC One’s Christmas Together ad is a beautiful animated short film about family and paying attention. A mix of CGI and stop animation, the ad was put together by a team of stars:
A large team worked on the project, including Elliot Dear who previously created the expensive The Bear and the Hare ad for John Lewis.
The team of people were required to blend what the corporation said was a ground-breaking mix of CGI and stop-motion animation.
And they included puppet-makers MacKinnon & Saunders, who have previously worked with big names like Wes Anderson and Tim Burton.
The lead CGI artist was Rune Spaans, famed for her work on children’s favourite Trollhunters, and Clockwork Frog, who designed sets for Aardman film The Pirates, also chipped in.
Even the music, a song by Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson, comes with a pedigree.
The hit song was rearranged for the corporation by award-laden producer Steve Mac, who has worked with everyone from One Direction and the Saturdays to Rita Ora and Susan Boyle.
Also working on the project were marketing gurus Amar Marwaha and Arvid Härnqvist, the brains behind previous campaigns for the V&A alongside Martini, who were poached by the BBC Creative team last year.
Justin Bairamian from the BBC Creative in-house design team, which was heavily involved, boasted: “We’re delighted to have formed a world class team from across the industry to create this film.”
But despite the A-listers behind the ad, the licence fee-funded BBC today refused to say how much money had been lavished on the project.