Boots builds a new brand platform on life’s ‘brutiful’ moments
Boots has launched 'Give it Some Boots', a WPP-made platform that puts perimenopause, grey hairs and cancer treatment on screen, then finishes with a street dance to Nancy Sinatra.
The Boots advert song is “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”, the Nancy Sinatra hit written and produced by Lee Hazlewood, in a version specially re-recorded for the campaign. It soundtracks the dance sequence outside a Boots store that closes the 60-second film for “Give it Some Boots”, the new brand platform Boots launched on Wednesday 9 September 2026 with an integrated team from WPP.
It is not the 1965 master. Boots’ launch announcement describes “a specially recreated version” of the song, and neither Boots, WPP nor the trade press has named the singer or the producer of the new recording. Until they do, the honest answer to “who sings it” is that Boots has not said.
Where the Boots advert song comes from
Sinatra recorded the original in Hollywood on 19 November 1965 with Wrecking Crew session players, including Chuck Berghofer’s descending double-bass line, and it was released as a single that December. It entered the UK chart on 2 February 1966 and reached number one on 23 February, staying there for four weeks, according to the Official Charts Company; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the same month. The cost of a track like this, and why brands re-record rather than license the master, is covered in our guide to music in advertising.
Who is in the Boots advert?
The film follows women at different stages of life through what Boots calls “brutiful” moments: a young woman overwhelmed by skincare choices, a first grey hair, a sports injury, perimenopause, and hair loss caused by cancer. As Creative Review reports, the cast includes a real No7 Macmillan Beauty Advisor from a Boots store, trained to help people with the visible side effects of cancer treatment. Each woman finds what she needs in store, and the film ends with the choreographed dance to the re-recorded track. Creative Review notes the echo of Boots’ 2007 Christmas ad by Mother, Here Come the Girls, which put Ernie K-Doe in the charts.
The credits list the agency as WPP, The Pharm and VML London, with Ryan McManus as UK chief creative officer, Phoebe Arnstein directing for Biscuit Filmworks, Trim Editing on the cut and Time Based Arts on post. Charlotte Lock, Boots’ chief marketing officer, said the platform is about celebrating real life “joyful, messy, unexpected and sometimes tough”. Our review of the campaign as a whole is here.
Where the advert is running
The 60- and 30-second films launched on TV and in cinemas on 9 September, with a cinema slot ahead of “Verity”, the Colleen Hoover adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson that opens on 2 October 2026. The initial eight-week burst also covers digital out-of-home, social, in-store, online and YouTube connected-TV formats, backed by creator-led content. “Give it Some Boots” karaoke booths tour the country through September, inviting customers to sing the song themselves, which is the surest sign that Boots thinks the track, not the strapline, is what people will remember.
Max Rottier
He plans, buys and reviews advertising for a living, and helps score campaigns on the site against the same five Crown Score criteria alongside other authors and contributors.
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