John Lewis Christmas advert

The John Lewis Christmas advert is a television advertising campaign released by British department store chain John Lewis in the build-up to Christmas.[1] John Lewis launched their first Christmas advert in 2007 and it has since become something of an annual tradition[2] and one of the signals that the countdown to Christmas has begun in the United Kingdom.[3][4][5]

The adverts have been well received by the public, with media coverage upon their release driving interest and helping to promote the company. The music used in the advertising campaigns has often reached high positions on the UK Singles Chart, with the original songs often receiving a sales boost as well.[6] In 2008, the soundtrack featured a slowed-down cover version of a classic song, and all subsequent John Lewis adverts have employed the same musical style. Ellie Goulding, Gabrielle Aplin, Lily Allen and Tom Odell are among the artists that have contributed their vocals to a John Lewis Christmas advert.[7] For the 2014 campaign Tom Odell covered "Real Love", written in 1979 by John Lennon and re-released in 1996 by the three surviving Beatles, making it the last song recorded by The Beatles.[8]

Campaigns

2007 - "Shadows"

Christmas 2007 saw the first John Lewis television advertisement in three years, with a six million pound campaign, their biggest seasonal ad spend up to that point. The commercial did not feature the hallmarks of later campaigns such as an emotional denouement or slowed-down cover version, instead using Prokofiev's Morning Serenade from Romeo and Juliet. It features presents and products being carefully assembled positioned to eventually create a shadow image of a woman and a dog in the snow, in the style of artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

2008 - "From Me to You"

For a second year, Lowe and Partners were the agency behind the John Lewis Christmas ad, a montage of people of all ages and their ideal gifts with the tagline "If you know the person, you’ll find the present". This was the first to feature the now-traditional cover version, with "From Me to You" by The Beatles recorded by unnamed employees of John Lewis. The full track was made available to download for free on the John Lewis website with an encouragement to donate to Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation.

2009 - "Sweet Child o' Mine"

The 2009 advertisement was the first for John Lewis by agency Adam & Eve (now part of DDB Worldwide), who went on to create the subsequent five Christmas campaigns. Featuring a cover of the Guns N' Roses song "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Taken by Trees, the commercial features young children opening gifts usually given to adults such as a coffee machine and a laptop. With the tagline "Remember how Christmas used to feel", the final scene shows a girl unwrapping a camera and becoming a woman.

2010 - "A Tribute to Givers"

Ellie Goulding's cover of the Elton John song "Your Song" was the soundtrack to a collection of images showing people preparing gifts for their loved ones. Most notably, two parents attempt to secretly carry a rocking horse up some stairs whilst their children watch television. The advert concludes with a boy taking a stocking of presents outside to his pet dog in the snow, and hanging it on the kennel. This caused some controversy with animal rights protesters who complained that the animal was left outside in the cold whilst the boy waved goodbye and retreated to the house.

2011 - "The Long Wait"

Featuring The Smiths song "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" sung by Slow Moving Millie, the 2011 advert featured a little boy impatiently counting down the days to Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he wolfs down his dinner and goes to bed early in preparation for the next day. When he awakes on Christmas morning, the little boy jumps out of bed, runs straight past a large pile of presents at the bottom of his bed and heads for the wardrobe. He then wanders into his parents bedroom, waking them to give them the gift he has, for so long, being waiting to give them.

2012 - "The Journey"

Using 20-year-old Gabrielle Aplin's version of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood classic "The Power of Love", the 2012 advert showed a snowman who traversed fields, a river, a mountain to obtain a perfect Christmas gift for Mrs Snowman. The advert was very quickly followed up by a children's picture book which was hastily written and published immediately after the advert's first screening.

2013 - "The Bear and the Hare"

Set to a cover of "Somewhere Only We Know" by British singer Lily Allen, the 2013 campaign featured an array of woodland animals in a classical Disney style and setting. The full advert lasted 2 minutes, and was made with 2D Animation by Premise Entertainment. It told the story of a bear hibernating before Christmas, before being persuaded to wake up by the titular hare to see Christmas in all its splendour. The accompanying music quickly rose to the top of the UK Singles Chart, doing so twice more in later weeks.[9] A portion of the song's sales earnings were donated to proceeds Save the Children's Philippine Typhoon Appeal campaign.[10]

2014 - "Monty the Penguin"

In their press release ahead of the 2014 campaign launch, John Lewis stated that the strapline for the advert was "Give someone the Christmas they've been wishing for". They added that "the heartwarming advert tells the tale of an unlikely friendship between a little boy Sam and his penguin friend Monty."[1] British singer-songwriter Tom Odell recorded a cover for the advert of the 1976 John Lennon song "Real Love", which was the last official song recorded by the Beatles after being re-released in 1996.[11]

2015 - "Man on the Moon"

Featuring a cover of Oasis' 1994 B-side "Half the World Away", sung by Norwegian singer Aurora,[12] the 2015 campaign tells the story of a young girl trying to contact an old man spotted living alone on the Moon. Her attempts to catch the man's attention fail until she sends him a special delivery of a telescope, via balloon, and the man finally gets to see Earth on Christmas night.[13] The strapline for the advert is "Show someone they're loved this Christmas", with the company teaming up with the charity Age UK.[14] The advert is estimated to have cost around £7 million.

Official singles

The first John Lewis single in 2009 was "Sweet Child o' Mine" performed by Taken by Trees, reaching number 23 in the chart. In 2010 "Your Song" by Ellie Goulding made it to number 2 and in 2011, the third John Lewis "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" by Slow Moving Millie reached number 31. In 2012 the fourth single was sung by Gabrielle Aplin which topped the UK Singles Chart with her single "The Power of Love". Lily Allen's single "Somewhere Only We Know" also topped the charts in 2013 and in 2014 "Real Love" sung by Tom Odell peaked at number 7. In 2015, "Half the World Away" by Aurora got to number 11.

Release
date		 Title Artists Peak
position
November 2009 "Sweet Child o' Mine" Taken by Trees 23
12 November 2010 "Your Song" Ellie Goulding 2
11 November 2011 "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" Slow Moving Millie 31
9 November 2012 "The Power of Love" Gabrielle Aplin 1
10 November 2013 "Somewhere Only We Know" Lily Allen 1
6 November 2014 "Real Love" Tom Odell 7
6 November 2015 "Half the World Away" Aurora 5

Awards

John Lewis was honoured at the 2012 IPA Effectiveness Awards for their campaigns up to that point. They were awarded the top prize which is awarded to companies "showcasing and rewarding campaigns that demonstrate their marketing payback".[15]

References

  1. 1 2 "Monty's Christmas" (Press release). John Lewis Partnership. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Wallop, Harry (5 November 2014). "John Lewis adverts from Christmas past". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Stone, Jason (12 November 2013). "John Lewis Christmas ads: how they evolved from 2007 to 2013". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Sherwin, Adam (6 November 2014). "John Lewis Christmas advert: It's sickly, sweet and surprisingly potent". The Independent. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  5. ↑ Wallop, Harry (6 November 2014). "It's funny how John Lewis Christmas Advert is now part of our Christmas countdown". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Welsh, Daniel (6 November 2014). "John Lewis Christmas advert 2014: Best and Funniest Twitter Reactions to #MontyThePenguin". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Sob! All the John Lewis Christmas adverts. Which one is your favourite?". Now. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  8. ↑ Wallop, Harry (6 November 2014). "7 Things You Need to Know About the John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  9. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20131124/7501/
  10. ↑ "Revealed: What is the John Lewis Christmas advert song and who sings it?". The Daily Telegraph. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  11. ↑ "Christmas! John Lewis's annual gift to the music industry!". The Guardian. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  12. ↑ "The Man on the Moon: Everything you need to know about the John Lewis ad". The Daily Telegraph. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  13. ↑ "John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015: watch the Man on the Moon". The Independent. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "John Lewis team up with Age UK for the most heartbreaking Christmas advert yet". The Sunday Post. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  15. ↑ Briggs, Fiona (29 October 2012). "John Lewis campaign awarded Grand Prix in top industry advertising awards". Retail Times. Retrieved 7 November 2014.

External links

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