John Lewis has used its Christmas ad to raise awareness of children in care with the story of a middle-aged man learning to skateboard before welcoming a young teenager into the family home. The 90-second ad, entitled The Beginner and set to a cover of Blink 182’s All the Small Things by US artist Mike Geier, shows the man as he struggles painfully to master skateboarding in the build-up to Christmas.
Viewers are left questioning the motive behind his perseverance until the final scene, which shows a social worker arriving at his door with young teenager Ellie, who has arrived at her new foster home carrying her skateboard. John Lewis said it understood that not all foster carers had the benefit of knowing who they would be looking after in advance and that its broader campaign also featured “authentic voices of carers” and “young people with different experiences of a complex care system”.
But it said that “in a challenging year, we felt it was important to demonstrate that it’s what we do that matters most”, adding it was proud to use its Christmas ad to “generate conversation and action around an often overlooked issue”. It follows the launch of the partnership’s Building Happier Futures programme to help young people with experience of the care system, including to move into the workforce.
