Ballerina stood on top of a rooftop with arms in air

Amazon launches a global Christmas TV ad campaign which follows a young, talented ballet dancer as she prepares for the role of a lifetime. This being 2020, things don’t go to plan, but with the support of friends and family, and her own tenacity and optimism, she delivers a spectacular performance for her awestruck neighbours.

Amazon’s 2020 Christmas campaign, featuring an original arrangement of “The Show Must Go On” by Queen, launches on TV on the 2nd November with the 60 second advert. The full 120 second advert will air on 3rd November, during the first ad break of The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4.

Simon Morris, VP Global Creative at Amazon, said: “Our TV ad is inspired by, and pays tribute to, the unbeatable human spirit and the power of community that we have witnessed so often this year.”

The TV advert, created by Lucky Generals for Amazon, features French ballet dancer, Taïs Vinolo, in the starring role. We follow her powerful story as her dreams of dancing a lead role are jeopardised due to the COVID-19 crisis. As her ballet school closes, she continues to train regardless, in and around her neighbourhood. However, later in the year, her hopes are dashed, as the end of year performance is cancelled. Devastated, she loses hope. However, her sister and the community around her secretly pull together to give her a stage and an audience after all, in an emotional finale.

Being on this shoot… helped me to own who I really am, who I want to be and what I represent.
Taïs Vinolo, ballerina and star of the Amazon Christmas 2020 advert

Taïs Vinolo, ballerina and star of the Amazon Christmas 2020 advert, said: “When I was growing up in the French countryside, there were no young black girls studying ballet with hair like mine, or even on TV, meaning I had no one to identify myself with. Being on this shoot helped so much with this, enabling me to own who I really am, who I want to be and what I represent. I am so proud to have been part of this project since the message of it means a lot to me and even more so in this very difficult time that the world is going through.”

The film features a unique arrangement of the song “The Show Must Go On” by Queen, and was shot by award-winning director Melina Matsoukas, whose previous directing credits include music videos for Beyoncé’s “Formation”, Rihanna’s “We Found Love”, and the critically-acclaimed film, Queen & Slim.

There will be four versions of the brand advert airing from 2nd November until 14th December: the 120 second full-length advert which airs on 3rd November; shorter 60 and 30 second versions, alongside a 20 second version for online.

Browse, shop and support charities this Christmas

To coincide with the launch of the ad, customers can now browse and purchase gifts from The Amazon Christmas Shop, the one stop shop for all your festive needs. For gift inspiration based on the interests of the person you are buying for and preferred budget, browse thousands of ideas through the Amazon Gift Finder.

To find out more, visit Amazon.co.uk/Christmas

It’s easy for customers to support a good cause this Christmas on Amazon.co.uk. While shopping for gifts for family and friends, customers can support one of more than 30,000 participating UK charities by starting at smile.amazon.co.uk on a web browser, or by activating AmazonSmile in the Amazon app on iPhones and Android phones under "Programs and Features" (after selecting a charity via smile.amazon.co.uk).

AmazonSmile has the same low prices and convenient shopping experience customers have come to expect from Amazon, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to a charity of your choice. AmazonSmile has donated more than £4.6 million to UK charities and more than $215 million globally to hundreds of thousands of charitable organisations.

Supporting the recovery of the European TV, film and theatre production community

Ballerina dressed in white feathers and arms in the air

In August 2020 Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios announced a $6 million commitment to support the European TV and film production creative community through the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations from the fund will be made to COVID-19 relief funds in countries across Europe to support the creative community as TV and film production begins to restart across the continent.

The first confirmed awards from the $6 million fund included a £1 million donation in the UK to the Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response to kick-start a new grants scheme to help the industry recover; and a £500,000 donation to the Theatre Community Fund, launched by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody to provide hardship grants to theatre workers and freelancers across the UK.

Raising funds for grassroots music venues across the UK

On 9th October 2020, Amazon hosted Prime Day Live – a star-studded livestreamed event, presented by Amazon Music, to raise awareness and funding for the nation’s much-loved grassroots music venues under threat of closure owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event bought together three special ‘behind closed doors’ performances from across the UK with Lewis Capaldi livestreaming from Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, Celeste from Bush Hall in London, Cate Le Bon from Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff, and presenter Gemma Cairney hosting from Le Belle Angele in Edinburgh. As part of Prime Day Live, Amazon made individual donations to the four independent music venues that participated to support their ongoing operating costs, as well as making its second donation of 2020 to the Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues appeal.

In addition, viewers were able to donate directly to Music Venue Trust during the livestream and customers can continue to support Music Venues Trust when shopping with Amazon Smile, meaning a portion of eligible purchases goes to the charity when customers shop via smile.amazon.co.uk and select Music Venue Trust.