Danny Dyer and Eddie Hearn headlined as Paddy Power launched its first-ever Christmas advert.
Titled ‘A Shirts Not Just for Christmas’, Paddy Power charts the evolution of Andy, a fan of the fictitious Hardlypool United, who receives his first shirt from his father, played by Danny Dyer sporting a 1980’s-style mullet, all the way to gifting a shirt to his own son.
Let our brand new Christmas ad be a reminder that a football shirt is not just for Christmas, it’s for life…
18+ GambleAware | @mrddyer @eddiehearn pic.twitter.com/2NXTFaqWLQ
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) December 9, 2024
In the interim, the fan sees his side struggle before being taken over by Eddie Hearn, playing himself, who proclaims that he will buy success with money.
Hardlypool United subsequently win a league title but they then have it taken away due to FFP during their open top bus tour – compounding the fan’s misery.
On the advert, Senior Marketing Manager at Paddy Power, Dan Oates said: “We wanted Paddy Power’s first ever Christmas Ad to truly resonate with football fans, but also be one that would entertain the nation and hopefully we’ve done that.
“Being a football fan is full of ups and downs, and we wanted to showcase this, whilst packing in as many nostalgic references and typical ‘Paddy Power’ moments of joy as possible. A huge thank you to the talent, teams, agencies, and partners who helped make the campaign possible.”
Paddy Power previously featured Dyer in its adverts for Euro 2024, in which the actor poked fun at the perception of English football fans across Europe by celebrating England as being “Europe’s favourites”.
In this latest effort, it took a four-hour stint of prosthetic makeovers to age Dyer by 30 years for the final scene.
The ad, created by BBH London, debuted on television yesterday (10 December) and was also released across Paddy Power’s social media channels.
