Meet the Wakefield mind behind Waitrose’s Christmas sequel
“I started to grow a lot more”: Jack Croft says Leeds as an opportune location for artistry
A creative mind who grew up in West Yorkshire was one of the lead producers on this year’s Christmas “mini movie” from Waitrose.
Originally from Wakefield, Jack Croft began his path to The Perfect Gift 2 at Leeds College of Art and Design, which is now Leeds Arts University.
The advert sees the return of rom-com favourite Keira Knightley and comedian Joe Wilkinson.
Jack spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post about his early roots in the region.
“I was always the kid at school who wasn’t particularly good at anything academically, but had a particular interest in art and design,” he said.
“I just absolutely loved anything from the visual world.
“When I got a job in advertising, I really understood the creativity of writing - creativity comes through in arts because it’s just more of a pillar there.”
Jack said his time at Leeds College of Art and Design was seminal for his career development.
The university has hosted its fair share of famous alumni over the years, including artists Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
“I really started to understand the different career prospects, and the teaching there was brilliant.
“It was there that I learned about advertising - I was originally flicking through all the annuals of adverts that had been and gone in the library.
He added that it was a visiting tutor, Julie Wright from Buckinghamshire New University, who kickstarted his passion for the advertising game.
“She’s a Leeds lass actually - she does this talk every year where she shows a load of ads to students at the uni.
“Some of them were the big Guinness ads of the early noughties and a whole host of others.”
Jack cited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield as an aspect of the city’s cultural scene that he drew some level of artistic inspiration from.
He also emphasised that the atmosphere of Leeds is what made it such an exciting place to grow up.
“Generally the sort of atmosphere and buzz of Leeds is what I loved - that step up of going to school and college in smaller towns and cities in West Yorkshire up to Leeds was really exciting.”
Leeds’ arts scene produces an unprecedented level of talent year-on-year - musicians, writers, painters, sculptors, filmmakers, and many more.
The son of a vicar, Jack is now the Executive Creative Director of Wonderhood Studios in London, and said this year’s production for Waitrose drew a lot of influence from rom-coms as it did with the 2025 piece.
He said: “There’s references to lots of different things that we’ve played off of - and just to mention Molly Manners who’s the Director of this year’s commercial as well as last year’s one.
“What we’ve done for Christmas with the Perfect Gift is that it feels like a mini movie.
“It’s an incredible thing in its own right.”