The John Lewis Christmas advert phenomenon

After the 2020 release, what is it that makes the department stores’ Christmas advert the most anticipated each year?

The annual John Lewis Christmas advert is a hallmark of British Christmas traditions, with the festive season not starting until the advert goes live. But what makes it such a special event? Why does it garner so much positivity and enjoyment?

I believe this is down to one main underlying concept: it doesn’t focus on the traditional type of Christmas. Instead, it exemplifies some of the best attributes of Christmas: togetherness, comfort, love, kindness, inclusivity - without excluding those who might not have a traditional home environment over the holiday period.

For example, last years advert about 'Excitable Edgar' centred around the importance of a community and inclusion, finding a way for the outcast (whose entire existence seems to pose a threat to the village’s Christmas traditions) to be welcomed and involved regardless. Similarly, community plays a central role in the 2015 advert, 'The Man on the Moon', where a little girl is determined to show the elderly man who lives on the moon that he's not alone and finds a way to not just show him that he is cared for, but provides him with a way to communicate back.

The 2013 advert 'The Bear and the Hare' drives home the point that you don’t need a traditional family to celebrate Christmas and that your friends are just as important. That, despite any and all differences, Christmas is a time to be spent with loved ones. It highlights how Christmas isn’t about material things, or the amount of money you spend on decorations or lavish gifts. It’s about showing kindness to the people around you, be it your family, friends, or the little old man who lives alone on the moon. That human connection is what makes it all worth it.

Now, not all of their adverts are like this. Some of their earlier adverts had a much starker focus on material gifting, with a more classic approach of ‘oh look at what lovely things from John Lewis you could give to your family’. But from around the 2010 mark, where their advert focused on a small boy who was impatient for Christmas to arrive, not, as it turns out, to receive his presents, but so that he could gift his parents a present from him. That year was followed by the most memorable advert, at least for me, which centred around a snowman that makes a rather harrowing trip into town to get his snow-companion a pair of gloves.

This seemed to be the turning point for them, where their adverts switch to attempting to convey the feeling of Christmas rather than just portray its material pleasures. Whenever an advert seems to be missing these traits of inclusion, community, and love, they don’t seem to make such an impact - for example the 2018 advert featuring Elton John. Not that the advert was bad, but it relied heavily on him as an icon, and rather than conveying the feelings of community, inclusion, or love and kindness that the nation has come to expect from the John Lewis advert.

Edited by Hannah Youds