Promo

14 November 2025

Variety is the spice of director Léa Esmaili’s life. The promo for French up-and-comer Theodora proves it, as 'Masoko Na Mabele' is an absolute riot of colour and animation styles. If one's not to your taste, stick around a few seconds and another will do its best to sweep you up. Shout-out to the corridor chase early on lifted straight out of early survival horror games.

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14 November 2025

Today should be the happiest day of Rebecca's life. She's about to tie the knot surrounded by friends and family, only her dad, Michael, is nowhere to be found. No need to panic, right? He must be stuck in traffic or got ketchup on his shirt. He’ll be there before she knows it. Cut to Michael in his car, however, and he's not dressed for a wedding. Something's wrong… very wrong.

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14 November 2025

This Deutsche Telekom spot reminds DAVID of Children in Need's 'The Heaviest Backpack' film. The latter saw a boy carry the weight of a troubled home life on his shoulders; the former centres around a young woman with her own 'cross' to bear (more a sack than a cross, but you get the idea). For her, heavy is the message not sent to her mum after an argument.

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14 November 2025

This People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals commercial is redder than Rudolph's nose with a dollop of cranberry sauce on it. The charity claims over a hundred and eighty million animals will be slaughtered in the run-up to Christmas—suffice to say, it's the least wonderful time of year for PETA. There will be blood, not least in this 120" splatter flick.

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14 November 2025

Petrol stations are seldom fun, but this ad for Jet sets out to demonstrate that they can be. It certainly helps their case that they've set up a facsimile of a forecourt in a pristine interior, rather than in the howling gale with horizontal rain that always occurs when it's time for DAVID to fill the company Morris Minor. This is very sweet by comparison.

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14 November 2025

What are we to make of this extraordinary piece of content for Mango? More pertinently, do we judge it as a short film or as a piece of advertising? The yardsticks used to measure the two are very different, and as much as it succeeds as one, it looks to us as though it has badly failed as the other. What to do? What to do? Let's judge it as both... one after the other.

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13 November 2025

Chef Tom Kerridge always knows which pots and pans are his. Why? Because they've got his name on them, of course. If you want to cook like the man (maybe not to Michelin star standard), you can buy all sorts of Tom Kerridge-endorsed paraphernalia at Marks & Spencer. The range best stand up to the rigours of Christmas dinner or there'll be trouble.

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13 November 2025

DAVID's not sure how we've reached the seventh entry in the 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' series, but here we are. It's good news for Peter Stormare's accountant, as the Swede reprises his role as the Replacer—the guy who gets players out of work, family get-togethers, and the like. In an unexpected turn of events, Stormare adds Channel 4 continuity announcer to his résumé ("You're gonna love watching me watching myself on TV!")

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13 November 2025

If National Rail ever wants to go in a more experimental direction with its advertising, it should take notes from this Rimowa commercial. As a passenger drifts in and out of sleep, the line between dream and destination becomes blurred (less David Lynch's 'Lost Highway' and more, erm, 'Lost Railway'). Wherever she goes—or not—her natty suitcase follows suit.

Promo

13 November 2025

If Bruce Springsteen is the Boss, then Theodora is the Boss Lady (not to be confused with 'The Female Boss', Tulisa's one and only solo album). Part music video, part auto show, this chunky effort has Theodora perform 'Do U Wanna?', ‘Masoko Na Mabele', and 'I Wanna'. The French singer-songwriter and her entourage look right at home with monster trucks and quad bikes.

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13 November 2025

This new batch of PlayStation commercials doesn’t reference specific titles like 'God of War', 'Gran Turismo', or 'Horizon', letting viewers call to mind the games that speak to them. For DAVID, a lorry stuck on top of a skyscraper evokes 'Stuntman', a hard-as-nails driving game that never reached the heights of this commercial, but shared its sense of tactile spectacle.

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13 November 2025

They say revenge is a dish best served cold—for 'Clash of Clans' players, it's been hard to serve it at any temperature. That's because the Revenge button has always been counteracted by shields, no ifs, not buts. Why have a big red button in your game if no one has a chance to use it? The cast of this entertaining commercial would sure love to know.

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13 November 2025

Remember when Adam Hart-Davis said "tax doesn't have to be taxing" (then told us that it was too taxing after all)? HM Revenue & Customs now says tax can be relaxing—scratch that, it'd like to say it's relaxing, but knows not to push its luck. It can ride it though, as demonstrated by this bubbly 30" commercial from Pablo, TMW, and director Eoin Glaister.

Promo

13 November 2025

Rag'n'Bone Man's on a quest in the promo for 'Time to Love'. Co-directed by Broken Antenna and Tim Nathan, the film has Rory Graham ride a bike across a magic-realist version of the Kent coast (a lovingly rendered map refers to landmarks like The Pale Road, The Nowhere Plains, and Sunfire Rest). See how far sat-nav gets you with them.

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13 November 2025

In 'Pulp Fiction', Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) gives Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) a pep talk of sorts: "Night of the fight, you might feel a slight sting. That's pride fuckin' with you. Fuck pride!" Non-profit organisation Fuck Cancer is cut from the same cloth, thought it's never told hired goons to throw someone over a balcony. As far as we know.

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12 November 2025

The latest PlayStation spot from agency adam&eveDDB and director Nicolai Fuglsig shows how hard it is to catch a lift when you need it most… say, when your humongous spaceship crashes in the middle of the desert. Two guys think a woman's about to rescue them in her truck, but would you pick up two potential aliens in disguise? We thought not.

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12 November 2025

Famous Footwear wants elf reporters Bo and Go to charm the socks off viewers, but the brand's off to a bad start with names like Bo and Go, to be honest. A lot more magic's needed to earn those two mic drops at the end, too. There's still time for them to become the best elf reporters around, but the youngsters have bitten off more than they chew this year.

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12 November 2025

Talk about a one-two punch from Disney. No sooner has the brand teased 'Toy Story 5', it's released another Christmas ad directed by Taika Waititi. Though 'Best Christmas Ever' is standalone in some respects, it's also meant to get viewers in the mood for Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Forky, and company well ahead of June 19, 2026.

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12 November 2025

Joe Wilkinson looks great for someone who was murdered (in 'The Celebrity Traitors'). He left Joe Marler heartbroken, but still wound up in the Waitrose & Partners Christmas ad for the second year in a row. Every cloud, eh? Wilkinson's down in the dumps, too, however—his late wife, Shelley, said the only woman he could move on with was two-time Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley. That'll never happen, right?

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12 November 2025

Is Christmas perfect? No. People argue, get stressed, lose track of time, forget to buy nuts… it's all a rich tapestry. Rather than iron out these flaws, Tesco chooses to embrace them with the help of agency BBH and director Jeff Low. From the moment a woman asks why the table is silent ("I had an opinion—that's what happened!"), you know you're in a good time.

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12 November 2025

This ongoing campaign has now established such a powerful idea about the shape of modern Britain that it's a surprise that politicians aren't yet talking about the need to capture the support of EE families. In the latest instalment — the telecoms company's first ad explicitly made for Christmas — the festive season is presented as a cross between a logistical blur and a rave.

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12 November 2025

Presumably, the aim of this strange amble through the uncanny valley for Telstra is to offer a flipside view of the joys of Christmas, but it doesn't really achieve that aim... or any other. According to the press release, the agency wanted to avoid "leaning on all the expected tropes," but it just shows them from a different angle rather than subverting them.

Promo

11 November 2025

Singer-songwriter Talia Rae dines alone in the promo for 'Blind in Love'. Glass of red wine in hand, she watches a couple (Tyra Richardson and Dominique Sands) on a 'date' at another table, though you can tell from each and every gesture that there's trouble in paradise. Rae takes little pleasure in it, as the lyrics to 'Blind in Love' reveal a romance turned bad.

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11 November 2025

Aldi takes no chances with the small print in this 30" Christmas spot: "Santa Claus is real, but an actor. Please do not attempt." Now that everyone knows where they stand, Brian Billow's latest spot for the brand shows how clumsy Santa can be. Much like the one in 'The Santa Clause', he slips and falls off the roof, but not to his death (he grabs hold of some Christmas lights, the lucky sod).

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11 November 2025

Compulsive gamblers go nowhere fast in this plug for GamCare, the charity behind the National Gambling Helpline. To illustrate how trapped addicts feel, director Max Millies and production designer Hannah Backshall present a man with concrete boots, a woman tied up in knots, and a guy almost eaten alive by the sofa. Even Harry Houdini would struggle to escape these traps.

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11 November 2025

The story of Jonah and the whale gets the PlayStation treatment in a 60" commercial directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. For those unfamiliar with the Bible tale, Jonah spent three days and three nights inside a whale’s stomach (some say it was to learn about forgiveness, but DAVID thinks he lost a bet). Fuglsig and agency adam&eveDDB take a different tack to say the least.

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11 November 2025

Another day, another Xfinity ad. Hot on the heels of 'Rabbits' and 'Frankenstein's Monster' comes 'Real Wizard', the latest 'Wicked: For Good' tie-in. As Jeff Goldblum and son River leave the premiere, the world appears more monochrome than usual. To make it more colourful, Goldblum does what his onscreen character cannot do and performs some honest-to-god wizardry... but only if you count WiFi as magic.

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11 November 2025

One of two Aldi commercials directed by Brian Billow across the pond, this instalment takes it *slow*. Billow's camera roves around a Christmas party that's been flash-frozen but not the whole way (we like how one guy totters on top of the sofa). The company's good, but people stay for the food provided by the supermarket on a US charm offensive.

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11 November 2025

This National Lottery ad coasts on the charm of former Olympic champion Tom Daley, now the host with the most thanks to 'Game of Wool: Britain's Best Knitter'. Who better to don the, er, Scratchcard-igan than him, right? This is not a stitch-up, by the way—not only does Daley wear the multicoloured monstrosity, players can also win the darn thing.

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11 November 2025

"Once upon a time in London," we're told, "Texas the dog lost his way". Before anyone calls the RSPCA or Dogs Trust, Texas is stop-motion animated and made of paper (you might say he's a ruff cut). He's not out on the streets for long, anyway—'home' turns out to be Danish fabric manufacturer Tekla's first UK store. We like to think him and Patchwork Bear would get on.