John Lewis Christmas advert raises plight of lonely old people
Department store’s latest commercial, a lunar tear-jerker featuring a cover of the Oasis song Half the World Away, was made with help from Age UK
For some, it is the tearjerker that signals the arrival of the festive season. For others it confirms Christmas to be nothing more than commercial fodder to sell novelty tea towels. But whatever your thoughts on the John Lewis Christmas advertisement, one thing is certain: you won’t be able to avoid it.
Uploaded to YouTube at 9am on Friday morning, prompting a flurry of responses on Twitter, by 5pm the ad had been viewed almost 2m times. More than 70,000 people tweeted using the hashtag #manonthemoon, with overall opinion seeming to confirm that the retailer had once again succeeded in creating goosebumps and wet eyes across the nation.
This year’s ad tells the story of the unexpected connection between a little girl called Lily and an old man who lives on the moon, set to the sound of the Norwegian singer Aurora covering the Oasis song Half the World Away.
“SOBBING at the new John Lewis advert – amazing,” seemed to sum up several thousand of the tweets. “When I first saw the John Lewis advert tears started to pore [sic] down my face. It’s such a heart melting advert” tweeted another.
But others were left cold by the brand’s formula of capturing Christmas through the eyes of a child. “Watched the John Lewis advert and I feel nothing. Annual reminder that, yep, still dead inside,” wrote Lily Lipstick, a food blogger.
According to Blurrt, a site that analyses audience response on social media, the overall Twitter sentiment towards the advert was 52% positive, 14% negative and 32% neutral.
Some disputed the scientific accuracy of the advert. “The @johnlewisretail girl in the #ManOnTheMoon ad would need a reflecting telescope around 300m wide to resolve her friends face on the moon,” tweeted Huw James, an astronomer.
This year’s ad was made in concert with the charity Age UK, with the intention of raising awareness of the number of older people who will be spending Christmas alone. It is also set to give a Christmas royalty bonus to Noel Gallagher, who wrote Half the World Away in 1994.
John Lewis has a tradition of using covers for their Christmas ad. Last year the retailer featured Tom Odell’s version of John Lennon’s Real Love, and in 2013 it used Lily Allen’s cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know.
Monty the Penguin, John Lewis’s 2014 ad about a little boy and his penguin best friend, has been watched more than 24m times online, while the Bear and the Hare, which aired in 2013, has more than 102m views.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
My work
This article discusses the John Lewis Christmas advert published by Hannah Ellis Petersen. It mainly talks about the viewer opinions on the advert and the amount of views and discussions going on about it on social media. She then talks about the reputation of John Lewis Christmas adverts also the reason and theme of the advert " raising awareness of the number of older people who will be spending Christmas alone" This offers the reader alternate information and opinions on the advert.
Petersen gives a comparison to last years John Lewis advert "about a little boy and his Penguin best friend" that was made in 2014 and also the 2013 advert with the "bear and the Hare" and gives the total view count of both adverts. Giving the reader insight on John Lewis and their past successful Christmas commercials
She doesn't give only positive opinions regarding the advert however she writes about the those who didn't react or where neutral. She uses humour shown through the quotes she picked such as "still dead inside" this is too keep the reader engaged in her post. It also communicates to the reader if they didn't cry they considered "dead inside".
Ultimately her use of language in these is not just to inform but engage the reader in the report, As her language and tone is more upbeat and which is evident from the humour used. Possibly because of the upbeat content in which she is reporting whereas the previous weekly news about "Did Isis down Russian airline" had a more negative report and was given with no use of humour and no opinion from the reporter regarding the incident.
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