Clemenger BBDO has revealed that Myer’s 2024 Christmas campaign could have taken a different turn, with the character Humbug originally set to spell out an expletive using Christmas lights.
Share The Joy centres an anti-hero who finds the usual festive lineup of carols, decorations and bright lights too much for his sensitive soul.
The brief from the department store tasked the creative agency to create an ad that drove in-store footfall during one of the most important sales periods of the year.
Clemenger senior copywriter Ellie Dunn said the goal was to create something that would “cut through” and get families’ attention.
“Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of cringey Christmas stuff out there,” she told AdNews.
“Humbug is chaotic and complicated, and quite frankly needs some therapy to address those anger issues, but in the end, he just wanted to feel seen and share in that Christmas joy.
“In his case - crushing Christmas baubles in someone’s driveway.”
The campaign has been rolled out nationwide across TV, BVOD, OOH, digital, social, PR, online and in-store VM.
Clemenger's chief creative officer Adrián Flores said it took “forever” to land on the final concept because there were eons of ideas and mountains of scripts.
“Christmas is obviously an important moment for a department store, so Myer wanted to reinforce their gifting destination credentials,” he said.
“We wanted to create something memorable that would get your attention during the ad break and be worth talking about with your co-workers the next day."
Dunn said the ending was the trickiest part in the scripting phase.
“There were lots of different versions, including Humbug getting gifted Christmas lights then using them to spell out a Christmas expletive. That was a step too far apparently,” she said.
“In the end, the combat boots were the perfect combination of a sellable gift with a dark twist.”
Dunn revealed that she drew inspiration from her own childhood when creating Humbug, who can’t resist causing merry mayhem in the neighbourhood.
“I can’t speak for the others but as a child I threw a lot of tantrums, so I channeled that deranged childhood energy into a lot of the scenes,” she said.
“Like burning a Santa suit on the barbeque - I’d have loved to do that."
Clemenger’s senior creative Hugh O’Connor said the campaign is “a mischievous take on Christmas that doesn’t take itself too seriously” which he hopes Australians can relate to.
“We wanted the character to feel embedded in the real world, so we worked with Odd Studio to create a real-life puppet,” he said.
“It took three people to operate, moving its feet, arms, and body in unison, acting alongside the talent.
“We then added a layer of CGI in post to Humbug’s facial movements to really bring it to life and land the emotional arc of its journey.
“That’s where Damon and the team at Fathom came in and did a stellar job.”
O'Connor said Humbug is also a toy created for the campaign, available instore for a limited time.
“The TV pre-production started while the team were still finalising the plush toy design, which made for crunchy timelines, and some hairy moments when we made last minute changes to not only the fur, but also its colour, but luckily we had an amazing team to bring it all to life,” he said.
“We wanted to strike the perfect balance between grumpy-little-shit and somewhat-loveable-furry-thing.”
MOFA director Yianni Warnock told AdNews that the crew found a street which felt very eclectic because every house had a slightly different style.
“We wanted to find a location that felt a little bit mythical and had a tint of that nostalgic Spielberg quality about it but was also authentically Australian,” he said.
“We found the perfect spot in Belrose, Sydney. What really made it an easy choice was that it was elevated so we could capture the wide shot with beautiful depth and perspective.
“In the middle of this amazing cul-de-sac was a two-metre-wide empty block, this was the icing on the cake.
“Originally Humbug was going to live in a regular suburban house but when we saw this, it was obvious that we needed a little Humbug shack in this empty conveniently narrow plot of land.”
Warnock said the logistical issue was getting everyone to agree to filming there.
“We had our own little humbug on the street who didn’t want us to dress her house with Christmas lights or even have us film on the street,” he said.
“Martin Pearse, our location scout, somehow charmed her though because a couple of days before she agreed to it. Maybe he brought her a cheeky little gift, who knows.”
Share The Joy is Clemenger's final piece of work for Myer, after the agency declined to re-pitch for the brand's creative account, ending a decade-long partnership.
Flores said there was one particularly memorable moment which stood out.
“The Myer team is very happy with the result,” he said.
“The only people not happy with it thus far have been a couple of Ad Standards botherers who claim we’re promoting satanism and/or leading kids astray.
“Having the Myer exec team ask if we could increase the number of Humbug toys produced will stay with me. Also when Yianni turned to me and said, 'You’re my favourite creative in Australia'.”
“I don’t remember saying that,” Warnock said.
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