“Love That!”: M&S Spreads Happiness With a New Fashion Ad Classic

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M&S earn an Ad Of The Week slot this week with a gem of a springtime campaign from agency Mother for their clothing range. The “Love That!” creative platform turns fashion ad conventions on their head in a commercial built to generate good vibes, starring X-Files and The Crown legend Gillian Anderson.

Imagine a typical fashion ad, with glamorous models in expensive locations. It’s giving exotic, it’s giving exclusive, and it’s giving a 2.6-Star Rating average for the category on Test Your Ad. Not impressive. Fashion ads mostly leave the general public cold, which might be fine if you’re a high end brand but obviously doesn’t work for a High Street giant like M&S.

So how to show off your new season Spring Style range to audiences and leave them feeling happy about the clothes and the brand? Enter Gillian Anderson, who M&S have appointed their Chief Compliments Officer, assigned to make customers feel great about themselves with a well-timed “Love that!”.

It’s a delicious idea which is executed beautifully in the campaign’s 30 second hero spot, as Anderson strolls through city streets issuing compliments to passers-by, including one mouthed to a woman watering her plants in a flat far above. The reactions are surprise, happiness and shock as they recognise the superstar who just complimented them.

When we ran it past real audiences on Test Your Ad, “Love That!” proved to be a record-breaker – the most effective M&S Clothing ad we’ve ever tested. As is often the case with successful campaigns, there’s some research behind it, with a majority of people saying a respectful compliment brightens their day. That’s borne out by the success M&S have already had with the viral “Love That!” campaign, which is transferring to TV with Anderson on board after getting millions of views on social media.

“Love That!” works not just because compliments are fun but because as an advert it taps into something very powerful – a sense of communication and shared emotion between people. Many fashion ads operate more like a catwalk, with our attention on one model at a time. This one is more about connection and together-ness, which is bound to lead to greater emotional impact.

We can see that in the Test Your Ad results, where Anderson’s star turn as the CCO gets a 4.8-Star Rating, predicting extremely strong potential for brand growth given the right investment. To get an idea of just how impressive that is, we’ve tested over 1300 UK Fashion ads on Test Your Ad, and “Love That!” lands in the Top 10 – as well as being M&S Clothing’s top performer ever. Anderson’s pleasure at spreading happiness is infectious, and audiences are delighted to return her compliment. Love that? They certainly do.