Social Power of John Lewis

It’s November, your local supermarkets have stocked up on christmas treats and everyone you know is complaining that it is far too early for Slade to be on the radio again. Amongst the screams of “it’s chrissttmaasssssss” and the Regent Street festive lights (which are for some reason sponsored by Marmite!) we all pull our social media prowess together for one event, that’s right, the John Lewis christmas ad. After last year’s emotionally heart wrenching ad and the 2010 winter warmer (with the exception of the frankly rubbish soundtrack) we were all bound for a treat this year and of course they delivered as expected. If you haven’t seen the clip then please take a look below.



Now, although this ad is clearly fictional, it still manages to speak to the entire UK nation on a level we all understand, the level that we should all empty our wallets for John Lewis. However, is this not the point? I am assuming that John Lewis do not put together multimillion pound TV ads for the fun of it. In an advertising sense their vision promotes marketing brilliance. They create a video pairing something cute and loveable that we can all relate to with doing something overwhelmingly challenging. Proceed to add some gentle music and finally slap the respected brand logo across the screen resulting in a majority of people being sucked in year in year out, and if they don’t, then the majority of those they share it with certainly will be. Social sharing aside for two moments, it was even powerful enough to spark a parody within hours of the original by Ann Summers.



We all like to think that we have tabs on advertising 101 in the huge media world and can never be sucked into the machine we are all effectively a part of, but we are all responsible for talking about it, sharing it and promoting it for John Lewis. At no extra charge, I myself am writing an article on the video after all. The PR team at John Lewis need a pat on the back for doing things the right way, so that at the end of the day, we can conclude this clever and creative piece of video mixed with modern digital social platforms can create viral success. The will to share is bound to do good things for their business, JL…We salute you.

Now where is that John Lewis store finder!