The John Lewis Christmas campaign has become a fixture of the consumer festive calendar, introducing characters ranging from a lovelorn snowman and his snow girlfriend to a trampolining dog.
Here is a rundown of the ads since the first one screened in 2007.
2007: Shadows
The ad shows a group of people stacking a pile of potential gifts including a desktop lamp, a computer and a leather satchel in an empty room. The finished product ends up creating a shadow that looks like a woman walking her dog through the snow, accompanied by the tagline: “Whoever you’re looking for this Christmas.”
2008: From Me To You
Culminating in the tagline: “If you know the person, you’ll find the present,” it shows a succession of characters followed by a matching gift.
The soundtrack is a cover of The Beatles’ From Me To You recorded for the campaign, with vocals by Matt Spinner, a member of the John Lewis IT department and its music society.
2009: Sweet Child O’ Mine
This was the first of the store’s Christmas campaigns created by advertising agency Adam & Eve, now adam&eveDDB, and the first to feature a musical cover by a current artist, on this occasion a Taken By Trees version of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses.
The ad shows children opening gifts for adults including a laptop, coffee machine and handbag, followed by the tagline: “Remember how Christmas used to feel? Give someone that feeling.”
2010: A Tribute to Givers
Ellie Goulding’s cover of Elton John’s Your Song was the soundtrack to this ad, which showed parents sneaking a rocking horse upstairs while their children watched television, a man struggling to wrap a pair of candlesticks, a mechanic attempting to wrap a teapot at work and a young boy hanging a stocking on his dog’s kennel.
2011: The Long Wait
Set to Slow Moving Millie’s cover of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by the Smiths, the ad shows a young boy impatiently counting down to Christmas, only to show that his real motivation was to give presents to his parents.
2012: The Journey
A snowman traverses mountains and motorways to get to a shop to buy his snow girlfriend a scarf to keep her warm.
The soundtrack is Gabrielle Aplin’s cover of The Power Of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and the tagline is “Give a little more love this Christmas.”
2013: The Bear and the Hare
Lily Allen’s cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know accompanies an animated tale that opens with the line: “There was once an animal who had never seen Christmas.” It goes on to show the friendship between a bear and a hare until the bear departs to hibernate when snow starts to fall. The hare thinks of the perfect Christmas present for the bear, an alarm clock to allow him to wake up and experience Christmas.
2014: Monty the Penguin
Monty, who hopes for love at Christmas time, is the imaginary character created by a boy whose favourite toy is a stuffed penguin. A female penguin toy happily arrives under the tree for Monty on Christmas Day.
The ad features a Tom Odell cover of John Lennon’s Real Love.
2015: Man on the Moon
The biggest tearjerker of them all shows a young girl who spots a lonely old man on the moon and decides to send him a telescope to give him a connection to Earth. The partnership with Age UK had the tagline: “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas.”
Norwegian artist Aurora provided the soundtrack with a cover of Half The World Away by Oasis.
2016: Buster the Boxer
The story of Buster, who makes a break for the new Christmas trampoline after having to suffer watching foxes, a badger, squirrels and a hedgehog trying it out first, was accompanied by a cover of Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away by electronic trio Vaults.
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