John Lewis ad opts for light touch to offer viewers a Christmas bounce
2016 has been a tough year for many reasons. As teasers rumoured to be for the latest John Lewis ad appeared in social media earlier this week (with the hashtag #bouncebounce), we braced ourselves at the ifour studio, hoping they would be kinder this time following last year’s emotional Man in the Moon ad.
Leonie Sidgwick is senior strategist at ifour.
So we are thrilled by this year’s offering of Buster the Boxer and his animated woodland pals. As you would expect from a John Lewis ad, its emotionally engaging, but this time its designed to make us laugh rather than tugging on the heart strings. Acknowledging that 2016 had been a challenging year and the Man in the Moon adverts had been ‘somewhat sad’, this year’s £7 million campaign is designed to lighten the mood with an animal focus, rather than people.
Craig Inglis, customer director at John Lewis, said: “2016 has certainly been quite a year, so we hope our advert will make people smile. It really embraces a sense of fun and magic, reminding everyone what it feels to give the perfect gift at Christmas.
“Each year we work with a charity which fits our ad, and we hope this year's campaign will encourage more children to discover a love of British wildlife and encourage support of The Wildlife Trusts.”
Planning for this scale of campaign, which includes a VR experience at the flagship store, location specific Snapchat filters only available on photos taken in store and Twitter stickers as well as the usual adverts, starts each year in January so we can imagine the course of the conversation changing through this year. Returning to director Dougal Wilson, responsible for three previous Christmas adverts, (but not the Bear and the Hare which we reinterpreted back in 2013) the campaign stars Biff as Buster the Boxer, a host of animated woodland animals and 6-year-old Summer in the role of Bridget, who loves to bounce.
Stepping away from the more traditional Christmas themes, the advert has already come under fire for not featuring Santa but a store spokesman has already reassured concerned parents: “We’re sure Father Christmas has also visited Bridget and Buster the night before. This is just an extra special gift from her parents because she loves to bounce.”
We love this year’s advert and the approach to cheer up the nation with clever animation, high tech supporting collateral on social media and in-store and, whilst this will no doubt make Biff the boxer a nationwide star, we feel the real star of the show is Summer’s expressive reaction at the finale of the advert. Someone give that girl a junior Oscar!
Léonie Sidgwick is senior strategist at ifour
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