Amazon is doubling down on one of its most charming ideas in years, reviving its Cannes-winning “Five Star Theater” campaign and bringing in the actor audiences literally asked for. After fans flooded last year’s Adam Driver-led spots with requests to cast “a real serious actor like Benedict Cumberbatch,” Amazon took the note.
Cumberbatch returned to the stage for the first time in a decade to deliver a one-man show built entirely from genuine five-star customer reviews.
The result is a holiday campaign that’s as dramatic as it is delightfully absurd. Cumberbatch treats each review as a fully formed character, leaning into humor, intensity, and the strangely poetic specificity of items people passionately adore.
The reviews — unchanged from what customers actually wrote — range from heartfelt to hilariously odd, and include giftable favorites like a boyfriend pillow, penguin pajamas, Mane ’n Tail haircare, a portable heater, a bidet, Uno, a power tool, a sun hat, and even a coffin. Watch the hilarity below:
To pull off this year’s theatrical lineup, Amazon again used its AI-powered curation tool to sift through more than 300 million reviews and find the most distinct, emotional, and entertaining ones. “We think customers will be surprised and delighted by his take on the concept,” said Jo Shoesmith, Amazon’s vice president and global chief creative officer. “Five Star Theater celebrates the creativity and humanity that emerges from our customer reviews.”
The 2025 installment is significantly bigger in scale. Directed by Mike Diva of Lord Danger and produced by Amazon’s internal XCM creative team, the campaign will run through December 22 with a massive multimedia push.
Expect to see the spots across TikTok Top Views, Snapchat First Stories, YouTube, Lyft and Uber screens, Boingo, Hearst properties, and premium placements across Roku, Samsung, Disney/Hulu, Paramount and more. The ads will also appear during marquee sports broadcasts, including Thursday Night Football.
“Five Star Theater” also ties into Amazon’s larger “Everything for Every Holiday” initiative, which showcases recognizable family moments – kids’ tables, old bedrooms, gift-hiding, chaotic gatherings – and positions Amazon as the helpful thread running through it all. Together, the dual approach anchors Amazon’s holiday message: joy in the familiar, gifts for every kind of celebration, and a brand genuinely listening to its customers.
And based on Cumberbatch’s turn as a man passionately monologuing about a Toto bidet, the audience is definitely being heard. Instead of rolling their eyes. If it passes the family group test, we’ve probably done a good job.”
CREDITS:
BRAND: Amazon
AGENCY: XCM
Chief Creative Officer: Jo Shoesmith
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Lord Danger
Director: Mike Diva
REELated:
John Travolta’s Santa channels Danny Zuko for Capital One
