Drum roll please... it's The&Partnership's dream-inspired Christmas ad for Argos

For people of a certain age, one before the internet, going through the Argos catalogue in the run-up to Christmas was a ritual nearly as exciting as the big day itself. Yes kids, things were pretty dry before the birth of the World Wide Web. But in the just-launched Christmas campaign for Argos, masterminded by agency The&Partnership and directed by Stink Films’ Trakkor, the TV ad rekindles this joy – in children and adults alike, redubbing this toy-filled tome The Book of Dreams.

“The brief reminded us that Christmas starts with the Argos catalogue arriving,” said Danny Hunt, The&Partnership creative director in a statement about the spot. “As kids past and present we’ve all spent hours sifting through it, circling all the stuff we wanted. This led us to the idea that this is so much more than a catalogue. It’s a book of dreams. And that was a big idea we all got very excited about.”

Kicking off the season’s flurry of Xmas ads, the spot features a dad and his daughter, who find that their dreams have more in common than they first thought. Circling a drum kit while sitting in the kitchen, the dad suddenly finds his living room transformed into a gig – and that his young daughter is keen to duet.

Featuring dry ice, the Simple Minds hit Don’t You Forget About Me and some very heart-warming acting, the spot airs tonight (1 November) for the very first time. It even makes a prediction about which toy will be the most popular of the year with Cubby the Curious Bear diving off the stage and crowd-surfing as the father-daughter duo rock out.

Directing team Traktor said: “Sometimes the stars line up in a project; this was one of those. We had the proper ingredients: a great story, the most iconic humdinger from the 80s, full access to that classic video, two superstar drummers, a couple of kids’ drum kits and a crew that absolutely loved this project. With a large and fairly complicated set (designed by Nick Foley-Oates), we didn’t make it easy for ourselves, but we had a lot of fun doing it.”