Fishing for more business: Still from Fortnum & Mason's social push for Christmas hampers. Image credit: Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason, grocer to the Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, has gotten into the holiday spirit with a new video campaign asking a key question:
What's in a Fortnum & Mason hamper?
The London-based retailer goes on to explain in a jolly video 45 seconds long, posted on social media channels including Instagram and YouTube.
Food for thought
A staple of gifting, demand for Fortnum’s hamper reaches crescendo levels in the run-up to Christmas.
Fortnum & Mason's Classic Christmas Hamper, priced at $225. Image credit: Fortnum & Mason
Narrated staccato by a man in the best almost-RP accent, the film opens with a red-jacketed Fortnum employee bringing the iconic wicker basket to a table.
Lyrics in background, goodies start filling the basket, from cookies to cakes, fish, tea tins and cheese to hot chocolate, candy and lamp chops, all topped with pours of wine and Champagne.
Room for more: Still from Fortnum & Mason's video pushing Christmas hampers. Image credit: Fortnum & Mason
As it nears the end, the employee is shown getting into the hamper, a Christmas tree is adorned, the fireplace lit and then the lid closes.
The lyrics say it all:
“We are often asked how it is that we do it.
How we take a hamper and fit so much into it.
The history, the mystery, The who, what and where.
The abundance of everything to leave no cupboard bare.
Packed with lashings and lashings and lashings of lots,
And less than a pinch of things it has not.
Loved by him and by her and by them and by jove –
With a feast this ginormous, you may need a new stove.
So how on earth do we do it?
Well, there’s no secret here.
We’ve been perfecting them now for some 300 years.”
The spot ends with the employee closing the lid after him and this tag line: Packed full of Christmas.
NUMBERING IN the hundreds, Fortnum’s hampers are tailored for different gifting occasions, indoors and outdoors.
The Christmas hampers range from $225 for the Classic Christmas assembly to $7,775 for the spectacular go-all-out Imperial Hamper.
Fortnum & Mason's Imperial Hamper, priced at $7,775. Image credit: Fortnum & Mason
What's in a Fortnum & Mason Hamper?