As John Lewis Christmas adverts go, this year’s much-anticipated festive helping is a much quieter and subtle approach to their usual Hollywood-esque production. Gone are the snow machines, aliens and multi-million pound star guests - in its place is the simple story about a soon-to-be foster dad and daughter.
Piano keys chime with an unusual rendition of Blink 182’s All The Small Things, gruffly crooned by Atlanta-based singer Mike Geier, in the background as a woman speaks on the phone.
“Yeah, we can’t wait,” she tells the other person on the end of the phone as her husband walks in. “We’re really excited.”
Holding up a skateboard, her husband straps on his helmet and goes out to practise skateboarding. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t go too well and - more often than not - he ends up flat on his face.
As he decorates the home in time for Christmas with his wife, she asks him if he’s OK, to which he insists he’s “fine”. Having decorated the tree, with a teddy bear sitting at the bottom, he heads out again to skate again and continues to fall over.
“How did it go?” His wife asks again when he returns and he replies positively: “Yeah, I think I cracked it.”
The dad is then seen at his festively-decorated office as he secretly watches YouTube videos on skateboarding. Later, he’s seen practising at night - which is when he’s delighted as he finally learns how to ride properly.
Back at home, they receive a ring at the door bell - and finally the reason for why the dad has been practising so hard at skateboarding. A young girl, who looks unsure and nervous as she holds her own skateboard while standing next to a social worker.
“Hey honey,” the dad says to the girl - Cassie - as she glances over at his skateboard leaning against a wally behind him. He shrugs nonchalantly. “Oh, I skate a bit too.”
As she’s invited in, Cassie is able to bond with her foster parents.
Hoping to highlight children in care at Christmas, it’s a simple and sweet advert that avoids that cloying, sickly Christmas feel that some festive ads easily get tied up in. The budget for the advert was considerably lower than usual and a stark contrast to their 2018 multi-million pound Elton John production.
“No big special effects, no snow machines,” Rosie Hanley, John Lewis’ Head of Brand and Marketing, tells us. “We were very thoughtful about making sure that the cost of this production was very suitable to the environment that we’re in.”
“The ethos of the ad is what you do matters most,”Claire Pointon, Director of Customer, adds. “It’s very much the ethos of what you do with children - it’s what you do matters most. It’s a story of kindness. It’s a very different tone for us but we’re very excited for the future.”
John Lewis shot the ad locally in London and worked with charities Action for Children and Who cares? Scotland to ensure that children in care were at the forefront of the campaign - which they expect to last beyond Christmas.
There are 108,000 children growing up in care in the UK and they are three times more likely to be homeless than attend university.It’s a startling statistic that John Lewis themselves are hoping to combat through a long-term plan of action by providing employment opportunities to those in care through work experience placements and schemes.
“In care, the children are really neglected but - actually - the sector is neglected,” Ceira Thom, Head of Personnel, says.
“There are very few companies or national charities working in this space. So what was really important to us is one, we worked with charities with credibility and a passion and determination to improve the lives of children and adults who are care-experienced.
“Action for Children is one of their critical pillars and Who Cares? Scotland are a smaller charity but are care-experienced specific. They have a huge reach across Scotland so the charity partners compliment everything that we want and route back to everything that we want to do.”
As well as being able to purchase a range of products, including a skateboard, customers will be able to donate money to the charities via ‘Giving Trees’ in store by taking a tag from the tree with a value of between £5 - £50 and scan it with their shop.
Products available for purchase (of which 25% of sales go to charity) include:
- Lewis Bear £30
- Lewis Bear pyjamas £19
- Lewis Bear tote bag £5
- Lewis Bear Chocolate slims £5,
- Lewis Bear Bauble Head £5
- Rampage Skateboard £34.99
