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Lowe Howard-Spink has lined up advertising’s biggest-ever collection of

stars for a 90-second blockbuster commercial for Reebok’s football

boots, which are endorsed by Ryan Giggs.

A naked Anna Friel, a chip-scoffing Jarvis Cocker and the former Take

That star, Robbie Williams, join 18 other celebrities from the worlds of

the arts and sport. One by one they proclaim their passion for football

and their adoration of Giggs, the Manchester United star striker.

Other superstars crowding the pounds 3 million commercial, which was

directed by Tony Kaye, include Dave Stewart, Jose Carreras, Sting, Tom

Jones, Steven Berkoff, Quentin Crisp, Richard Attenborough, Vic Reeves

and Bob Mortimer, David Mellor, Warren Mitchell, Chris Eubank, and

Wallace and Gromit.

The celebrities declare their passion for football in an on-going banter

that tracks dialogue kicked from one celebrity to another as if it were

a football. At the end of the film, the stars speak of their ultimate

fantasy - to be in Giggs’ boots. The end shot shows the verbose

commentator, Jimmy Hill, tied to a chair in the middle of a football

pitch with a Reebok boot stuffed in his mouth.

The ad, which breaks this Thursday in the centre break of the Bill, has

been one-and-a-half years in the making, and was a logistical nightmare.

The celebrities volunteered their time for a nominal fee and a donation

was made on their behalf to the charity, Barnados.

Jeremy Bowles, the Reebok account director at Lowes, said: ‘We asked the

celebrities for just two hours of their time. All are genuine football

lovers who admire a player of the calibre of Ryan Giggs, even if they

are supporters of Middlesbrough or Sheffield Wednesday.’

Robert Fallows, Reebok’s UK marketing director, said: ‘The common bond

between all these people is that they would exchange their lifestyles to

be in Ryan Giggs’ boots. However successful they may be in their own

fields, they all dream of scoring a winning goal in front of 50,000

people.’

The ad was written by Derek Apps and art directed by Vince Squibb at

Lowes.

It will be backed by a specially-commissioned classical score by Anne

Dudley at Air Edel.