Boots Gorgeous Christmas with Gotan Project

Boots The Chemist, British pharmacy chain, is promoting a Christmas range of beauty products with “Tis The Season to be Gorgeous”, a glamorous rendition of the experience of women at this time. The adult-only television commercial features women treating themselves to feeling, smelling and looking ‘drop dead gorgeous’ as they interact with the normal routines of Christmas.

A woman carrying baby and dragging Christmas tree wears a satin red dress and blonde wig. Another drops a box of out-of-date Christmas decorations. A woman washing dishes in pink rubber gloves takes a break to sample “scents of occasion” by Ghost, Escada, Givenchy, Amarige and Ysatis. A woman combines icing the cake with moisturising her legs while her children play with the decorations. A woman pampers herself in the bath with Sanctuary products before peeling hundreds of Brussels sprouts.

A woman filming her children in a Christmas play turns the video camera around to take a look at her own appearance. In the living room a woman blow dries her hair as she vacuum cleans the carpet. In the kitchen a glamour queen applies Ruby & Millie nail polish before stuffing the turkey.

In the middle of a Christmas shopping rush, a woman uses a shop mirror to apply No. 7 lip products. Four women stand at the back of a carol singing group of children, preening themselves in preparation for the man of the house opening the door. One woman checks her eyelashes in the reflection provided by a Christmas tree bauble. Another woman multitasks, grooming her hair while wrapping gifts.

The ad finishes with a woman in revealing red dress plugging in her Christmas lights – looking up to the tagline in the sky, “Tis the season to be Gorgeous. Trust Boots”.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube

The Boots marketers gave the £15 million campaign an X rating, keeping the advert on televisions after children were meant to be in bed. Marketing director Andy Brent told the Daily Record, “We want to bring some glamour into women’s lives this Christmas and remind them to take time out for themselves to look and feel special too.”

Boots Gorgeous Christmas online

Boots Gorgeous 90 seconds version (with voiceover) at YouTube

Boots Gorgeous 70 seconds version (without voicover) at YouTube

See the Shots article for inside information on the making of the ad.

Credits

The Boots Gorgeous campaign was developed at advertising agency Mother London, by creatives Damon Collins, Iskra Tsaneva, Jo Forel, with agency producer Emmalou Johnson.

Filming was directed by well-known photographer and music video director David LaChappelle, with HSI producer Nicola Doring. The shoot was done in Barcelona with a team of 105 people. Brand Republic reports that the turkey scene alone took a whole day. More than 120 kilograms of Brussel sprouts were used in the bath scene.

Editing was done by Ben Stephens at The Whitehouse, London.

Postproduction was done at Absolute Post whose team included VFX Producer Chris Allen, 3D Rich Nelson, Flame artists Nathan Kane, and Danny Morris, Combustion artists James ‘Krispy’ Cromwell, Mark Epstein, and Dan Leatherdale.

Audio engineer was Anthony Moore at Factory.

Epoca Music by Gotan Project

Music for the Boots Gorgeous Christmas TV advert is “Epoca”, a track from Gotan Project’s 2001 album, La Revancha del Tango. Gotan Project is a music group based in Paris, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal (French), Eduardo Makaroff (Argentine) and Christoph H. Müller (Swiss, former member of Touch El Arab).

Gotan Project Revancha Del Tango CD at Amazon.co.uk

Lyrics for Epoca (in Spanish)

Si desapareció
en mi aparecerá
creyeron que murió
pero renacerá

Llovió, paró, llovió
y un chico adivinó
oímos una voz, y desde un tango
rumor de pañuelo blanco
No eran buenas esas épocas
malos eran esos aires
fue hace veinticinco años
y vos existías, sin existir todavía
Si desapareció
en mi aparecerá
creyeron que murió y aquí se nace,
aquí la vida renace

No eran buenas esas épocas
malos eran esos aires
fue hace veintinco años
y vos existías

No eran buenas esas épocas
malos eran esos aires
fue hace veinticinco años
y vos existías, sin existir todavía