Asda launches 'inclusive' George Xmas ad as fashion sales edge upwards

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 1, 2021

Asda is putting support behind its George fashion brand for Christmas and on Wednesday launched a new campaign that “shines the spotlight on inclusivity over the festive period”.

The first standalone campaign for the brand celebrates “inclusion and diversity as we ready ourselves for the big family get together”, it explained. The ad depicts a trans person’s homecoming.

Having donated £100,000 to charity Diversity Role Models this year - to help end LGTBQ+ bullying in schools - it has built on this partnership over the festive season, “tapping into meaningful insights in support of a community that at times doesn’t feel able to be their ‘true selves’ around family members”. This follows research it conducted suggesting individuals often act differently around family members and feel they need to keep secrets from them. 

Spokesperson for the campaign is Layton Williams, star of hit musical, Everyone’s Talking About Jamie. 

“Seeking to embolden anyone that feels anxious to head home this year, George is encouraging everyone to own their identities and ‘Slay it’ - featuring standout pieces from the partywear range, including sequinned co-ords and an inimitable fuchsia taffeta minidress”, the company said.

As mentioned, the ad is built around a trans person coming home for Christmas and George added: “Fearing rejection they arrive at a typical village hall, and in the style of New York Ball Culture that mixes performance, dance, lip- syncing and model poses, shed their coats along with their conventional manner. The bold and glittering dancers come together to form a dance troupe, performing TikTok-style moves en masse as they shed coats and jackets to reveal brightly-coloured dresses and shimmering two-pieces beneath the neon lights.”

George has simultaneously launched a TikTok challenge, urging creators to post their own celebratory dances using the hashtag #SlayItWithGeorge — currently trending at over 7.25M views.

LATEST RESULTS

The campaign comes just after Asda released its latest results that showed its George fashion offer growing year-on-year, but still being below pre-pandemic levels.

Asda’s like-for-like clothing sales increased post-lockdown, up by 1.2% in Q3 compared to the same period last year, “with the back-to-school range proving to be popular with customers”, it said.

But analysts analysts think the company needs to do more to get back to growth on a two-year basis. 

Kunaal Shah, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Despite having a weaker 2020 than its competitors, Asda’s Q3 performance indicates that its fortunes are yet to improve. Both clothing and general merchandise are lagging behind [2019], with these categories declining on a two-year l-f-l sales basis (-9.9% and -0.5% respectively)."

And Shah believes that bringing in more external brands is key: “Asda recently announced the expansion of its trial partnership with New Look into an additional eight stores, bringing the total to 10, but this will have a negligible impact in the short term given its still limited reach. The grocer has also increased the number of brands on its George website including Missguided and Threadbare, with this widening its appeal among younger consumers. It should also bring in other brands to the website such as Apricot to attract its new target market while maintaining its focus on legacy shoppers through its own-brand collection.”