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Marks & Spencer will this week unveil its pre-Christmas marketing

assault on the nation with a TV ad campaign that asks a host of

celebrities to reveal what the festive season means to them.

TV presenter Zoe Ball, Olympic champions Matthew Pinsent and Steven

Redgrave, football legend George Best and actress Honor Blackman will be

among the celebrities quizzed as to why Christmas is special to

them.

Each of them will answer that M&S, among other things, gets them in the

mood for Christmas.

The campaign launches on the back of the most positive trading news to

emerge from M&S in more than two years. Last week, the firm's chairman

and chief executive Luc Vandevelde revealed that its long-awaited

recovery had begun in earnest.

It emerged over the weekend that some of M&S' stores will open

around-the-clock in a bid to drive traffic in the crucial pre-Christmas

period.

There has also been speculation that retail managing director Roger

Holmes will take over as chief executive next year.

The ads, which break on Friday, have been created by Rainey Kelly

Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, with media planned and bought by Walker Media.

M&S' only previous TV branding campaign ran last year, and attracted

criticism for failing to lure its core customers back to the chain.