The John Lewis ad: it’s only an ad for a shop

By November 21 2011, 10:09 am 5 Comments
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Charlie Brooker takes aim squarely at the John Lewis christmas ad (and festive ads in general which he dubs “the retail industry’s end-of-term disco”) in the Guardian today apparently upset that some people seem to like it rather too much and are being moved to tears.

The £6m ad (did it really cost that much?) with its cute kid counting down the hours is after all Brooker says just an ad for a shop. Fair point.

While some are moved by the ad , which is accompanied by The Smiths song ‘Please, Please let Me Get What I Want‘ sung by Slow Moving Millie, Brooker says that considering all the sentimental fuss you’d think people were watching footage of shoeless orphans being kicked around rather than an ad for a department store:

“Failing to cry at an advert for a shop does not make me cold, incidentally. I have cried at films from ET to Waltz with Bashir, at news coverage of disasters, at sad songs, and at the final paragraph of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair. I cried at these things because they were heartbreaking. And because none of them was an advert for a shop.

“An advert for a shop. That’s all the John Lewis thing is, and as such it’s no more moving than the “So Near, So Spar” campaign of the mid-1980s. Anyone who cries at this creepy bullshit is literally sobbing IQ points out of their body. Is this really what we’ve become – a species that weeps at adverts for shops? A commercial has only made me feel genuinely sad on one occasion – 25 January 1990, when a falling billboard nearly killed ‘Allo ‘Allo star Gorden Kaye,” Brooker writes.

Is he right? Are people making too much fuss over a piece of nicely crafted marketing? While not moved to tears or anything I rather liked it.The cover of the Smith’s song isn’t half bad and over all it is a well made piece of TV advertising. It is nicely shot and frankly better than 99% of ads that the industry pumps out. Just look at what happened to M&S with its christmas x Factor ad.

The love people are feeling for the John Lewis ad, tears aside is clear, is clearly real it has already been viewed 2.3 million times having quickly hit 1m views online last week.

It is that success that led Campaign’s editor Claire Beale to wonder last week if John Lewis save adland this Christmas?

So what is the verdict is it a classic? Are people getting overly sentimental about an ad trying to sell us more toasters?

  • TESS ALPS

    Naturally, I am obliged to like all TV ads, but some I like a little more than others.  However, rather than get into this debate I offer you a couple of clarifications.

    I believe the £6m includes the cost of TV airtime, so is not the production budget alone.  And while 2.3m viral views are valuable and are in part a barometer of the popularity of an ad please don’t forget that most of them have been driven by people seeing it on normal telly and then seeking it out again or sharing it.  On its very first day alone on TV the ad was seen 17.9m times. 

    Given the economic mess we’re in, every business is going to be challenged.  One of the best strategies is to make a TV ad to grab the best share possible of a sickly market.  The IPA and many others have proved that the best predictor of an ad’s effectiveness  is not recall or awareness but likeability, so on that basis I reckon the JL ad must be doing a good job.

    • Gordon MacMaillan

      It’s okay Tess, I know that it was telly wot won it -;) But seriously I agree seeing ads like this on a larger screen makes all the HD difference. Still interesting to note the growing importance brands place on getting those online views to spread buzz. And the pre-launch online with this ad underscores that.

  • M Butcher

    If this isn’t a triumph for planning ( insights) and creative ( relevance and difference) – then I’m out of here.  If you go to You Tube, what’s also fascinating is that Littlewoods have bought the promoted spot and have gotten themselves a useful 1mil+ views with a nifty bit of guerilla media buying. I advise watching and comparing both of them to fully understand the differences between pull and push marketing today.  Then compare John Lewis and Littlewoods post Christmas sales results.

    • Gordon MacMaillan

      Didn’t notice that. Nice work from whoever the Littlewoods agency was. No advertising to match tho. And yes proof will be in the pudding as it were and the number of JL sourced gifts will far outweigh the number of LW gifts.

  • Peter Cove

    A fine commercial.  And an easy ad for the client to approve. Al credit to the creators.

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