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Oddbins Sends Chimps to Decorate Christmas With a Point to Prove
Oddbins released '12 Chimps of Christmas' in the United Kingdom in November 2016, a single-film retail campaign in which twelve chimpanzees break into an Oddbins store, decorate it for the festive season, and throw faeces at the branch manager, anchored by the tagline 'Give a sh*t this Christmas, according to Trendhunter.'
The campaign arrived at a moment when Christmas holiday ads in the United Kingdom had become defined by high-budget, emotionally earnest storytelling from major supermarket chains, according to Apps Fas Usda Gov. Oddbins, an independent specialist wine retailer with no comparable media budget, used deliberate absurdity as its competitive lever. Rather than compete on sentiment, the brand leaned into humour so transgressive it was structurally impossible to mistake for anyone else's advertising. The hashtag #12ChimpsofChristmas anchored the social extension of the campaign, inviting audience participation and organic amplification across platforms.
The campaign's identity is rooted in a clear creative proposition: that buying wine from a specialist independent is itself a small act of considered rebellion against the homogenised supermarket Christmas, according to Thedrinksbusiness. The chimps are not incidental; they are the argument made visual. By deploying animals associated with chaos and irreverence, Oddbins positioned its brand as the antithesis of the category's prevailing seasonal tone. The United Kingdom market for independent wine retail was under sustained pressure from supermarkets and discounters in 2016, and '12 Chimps of Christmas' was as much a brand survival statement as a festive greeting. The campaign contains a single media asset, a film, with no documented above-the-line media spend, suggesting its reach was designed to be earned entirely through shareability and press coverage, according to Cbi Eu.
Oddbins operates in a United Kingdom wine retail market defined by extreme concentration at the supermarket level, according to Asa Org Uk. According to The Drinks Business, supermarkets accounted for approximately 80% of UK wine sales channels in 2016, with Tesco holding 25.7% of supermarket wine share in the 52 weeks ending January 2016, followed by Sainsbury's at 17.8% and Asda at 13.3%. Against that landscape, independent retailers compete not on price or convenience but on personality, expertise, and cultural distinctiveness.
The discounter segment added further pressure. According to data reported by The Drinks Business, Aldi and Lidl together held approximately 10.1% of wine sales by a 2016 Kantar update, up from 9.8% the prior period, compressing the mid-market from below while premium supermarkets compressed it from above. For Oddbins, differentiation through creative irreverence was not a stylistic choice but a commercial necessity. Trend Hunter covered the campaign on 30 November 2016, framing it explicitly as an unconventional alternative to the sentimental Christmas advertising that dominated the United Kingdom's festive media environment that year, noting that brands including John Lewis had effectively codified a genre of emotionally weighty holiday storytelling that left independent retailers with no room to compete on those terms.
The strategic rationale for '12 Chimps of Christmas' was therefore audience self-selection. A consumer who shares a video of chimpanzees throwing faeces in a wine shop is signalling something about their own identity — a preference for irreverence, independence, and the deliberate rejection of mainstream retail. That signal is precisely the customer Oddbins needs. The campaign does not attempt to reach everyone; it attempts to reach its own people with unmistakable clarity.
Dan Jobson directed '12 Chimps of Christmas' for Oddbins, working with creatives Danielle Wilmot and Ryan Goodge to translate a deliberately transgressive concept into a single cohesive film. Production was handled by Spectrecom Films, with Laura Merrett serving as producer, Tim Raggett as editor, and camera operators Alex Kerr and Chris Kerageorgiou behind the lens.
The craft challenge in a campaign built around live animal performance and controlled chaos is considerable. Working with twelve chimpanzees in a retail environment requires both rigorous production planning and an acceptance that authentic animal behaviour will determine the texture of the final cut. The decision to let the animals drive the energy of the film — rather than compositing or heavily choreographing their actions — gives '12 Chimps of Christmas' a documentary rawness that distinguishes it from the polished production values typical of UK Christmas retail advertising. That roughness is a creative asset, not a limitation. It reinforces the brand's position as the unpolished, honest alternative to supermarket gloss.
The tagline 'Give a sh*t this Christmas' required creative nerve to execute in a regulated advertising environment. The United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority maintains clear guidelines on the use of profanity in advertising across different media, and Oddbins' decision to self-censor the word with an asterisk represents a considered navigation of those constraints — preserving the transgressive energy while reducing the risk of formal complaint. Marketing manager Lyndsey Gibbons oversaw the campaign internally, ensuring the work aligned with Oddbins' broader brand positioning. The lineage of the campaign connects directly to Oddbins' 2015 'Give a Fox' Christmas campaign, also produced by Spectrecom Films, which achieved 500,000 views across YouTube and Facebook according to figures documented by Clapboard.com, establishing the template of animal-led festive absurdism that '12 Chimps of Christmas' extends and escalates.
No verified performance data for '12 Chimps of Christmas' is publicly available in terms of view counts, conversion metrics, or sales uplift attributable to the 2016 campaign. The absence of disclosed figures is consistent with the campaign's earned-media model, in which success is measured by press coverage and social amplification rather than paid reach. The Drinks Business characterised the campaign as 'off-beat' Christmas work in a 2017 feature, an editorial framing that confirms the campaign achieved sufficient cultural presence to merit category trade press coverage several months after its release.
Structurally, the campaign is designed for maximum shareability at minimum production cost. The 2015 predecessor, 'Give a Fox', was produced for a documented budget of £10,000 according to Clapboard.com, suggesting Oddbins operates a low-spend, high-concept model across its Christmas output. If '12 Chimps of Christmas' operated within a comparable budget envelope, any meaningful earned media coverage represents a strongly efficient deployment of creative investment. The hashtag #12ChimpsofChristmas provided a measurable social hook, though no engagement data has been made public.
The Clapboard Score for '12 Chimps of Christmas' is 64 out of 100. That score reflects strong concept originality and brand distinctiveness offset by limited documented impact data and the inherent constraint of a single-asset campaign with no confirmed media distribution. The campaign succeeds as a brand identity statement and demonstrates Oddbins' consistent creative voice across consecutive Christmas cycles, which is itself a form of brand equity accumulation that compounds over time regardless of individual campaign metrics.
Oddbins released '12 Chimps of Christmas' in the United Kingdom in November 2016. The campaign is a single retail film in which twelve chimpanzees invade an Oddbins store, decorate it for Christmas, and throw faeces at the manager, all under the tagline 'Give a sh*t this Christmas.'
Dan Jobson directed '12 Chimps of Christmas' for Oddbins. Creatives Danielle Wilmot and Ryan Goodge developed the concept, while Spectrecom Films handled production with Laura Merrett as producer. Lyndsey Gibbons served as Oddbins marketing manager overseeing the campaign internally throughout its development and release.
Oddbins used chimpanzees to separate its brand from sentimental UK Christmas advertising. As reported by Trend Hunter in November 2016, the campaign was framed as a deliberate alternative to emotionally earnest festive storytelling. For an independent wine retailer competing against supermarkets holding the majority of UK wine sales, creative disruption served as a strategic necessity.
The tagline for Oddbins' '12 Chimps of Christmas' was 'Give a sh*t this Christmas.' The phrase extended the brand's pattern of irreverent festive messaging, connecting to its 2015 'Give a Fox' campaign, also produced by Spectrecom Films, which documented 500,000 views across YouTube and Facebook according to Clapboard.com.
Oddbins built a consecutive animal-themed Christmas campaign series with Spectrecom Films. The 2015 'Give a Fox' campaign, produced for a reported £10,000 budget according to Clapboard.com, established the low-budget, high-concept model. '12 Chimps of Christmas' escalated that formula in 2016, using the hashtag #12ChimpsofChristmas to extend the campaign socially across the United Kingdom.
Oddbins' '12 Chimps of Christmas' holds a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative originality and clear brand distinctiveness. It is moderated by the absence of publicly verified performance data and the campaign's reliance on a single film asset without confirmed paid media distribution in the United Kingdom.
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