Five years on: How a parody ad became the defining moment of the 2019 election

Five years ago today, Boris Johnson secured an 80-seat majority in the 2019 UK general election -- and this ad by Topham Guerin earned a place in political advertising history.

Getting the Prime Minister to re-enact that iconic scene from Love Actually was a crazy idea - and one that successfully dominated the news agenda in the final days of the campaign.

What most people don’t know: it almost didn’t happen.

Despite coming up with the idea right at the beginning of the campaign, we shelved it after a Labour candidate released her own version.

It wasn’t until the 11th hour that we got the green light - at which point we only had 24 hours to deliver a fully packaged-up ad for the BBC to run on TV.

With the clock ticking, we raced to find a location, actors, props and rent the specialist camera equipment in record time.

Even though we were short for time, we didn't want to compromise on making the parody as accurate as possible, shot-for-shot.

I think we managed ok... Sean, my TG Co-Founder, made a surprisingly good fill-in for Andrew Lincoln when we were framing the shot!

The only available slot to squeeze in filming with Boris was late on an extremely cold December evening. 

The PM came straight from a full-on NATO summit, and our wacky idea for a movie parody scene was the last thing standing between him and going home.

Incredibly, he managed to shoot it in just two takes.

The result?

A moment that went viral, dominated headlines, and cut through the noise.

And critically - every frame was relentlessly on message, delivering the campaign's closing arguments in a novel and attention-grabbing way.

Proof that the best ideas often come together when time is tight and stakes are high.

For me, this will always be a reminder of what’s possible under pressure when you have the right team around you.

After all, that's what we do at Topham Guerin.