Long ago, the opening of that “1st of December” hole in the advent calendar meant the start of the Christmas season to Britain. Or maybe it was the Coca Cola Christmas ads...
...until 2007, when the first John Lewis Christmas ad hit the airwaves. Since then, it has signalled the start of the Christmas season in Britain, and have been hyped up by British media.
Not to be confused with the former United States congressman John Lewis. Or a computer science teacher - although plenty of people do
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Tropes found in these ads:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first ad lacked a pop song cover.
- Interspecies Friendship: John Lewis LOVES this trope.
- Moz the Monster and the unnamed boy.
- The Bear and the Hare in the 2013 ad.
- Monty the Penguin and the boy in the 2014 ad.
- Eager the Dragon and Ava in the 2019 ad.
- Nathan and Skye in the 2021 ad.
- Repurposed Pop Song: All adverts (except the first one) have a downtempo cover of one of these. They often chart pretty high in the UK. The 2019 ad has Bastille doing a cover of "Can't Fight This Feeling". 2022's used Postmodern Jukebox and Puddles Pity Party's cover of "All the Small Things", which had been released previously in 2017.
- Softer and Slower Cover: The songs used are usually this compared to their original versions.
- Variations on a Theme Song: Invoked by ITV to promote the 2018 ad (which starred Elton John), by changing the theme tunes on several programmes to piano renditions.
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Viral Marketing:- To promote the 2018 ad, the "Lewis" was obscured on some John Lewis storefronts, making it read "John".
- For 2021, a UFO crash site was set up.
- As of 2022, the theme of the ads has been teased through a small change to the store's logo on their website. For instance, in 2022, the "I" was replaced with an illustration of a skateboard.
