For its 2023 Christmas advertising campaign, John Lewis has taken an unconventional route, featuring a mischievous Venus flytrap and the renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli, departing from its usual glitz and glamour approach.
In contrast to last year’s charity-focused ad showcasing a skateboarding foster dad, the department store has returned to its beloved formula of heartwarming stories involving children and their unusual friends, with a twist of catchy Italian rock opera by Andrea Bocelli.
The featured track, specially commissioned from relatively unknown Italian electropop artists Le Feste Antonacci, will be released as a single, with profits directed to charities, including Action for Children. This marks a departure from John Lewis’s tradition of having young artists reinterpret classic pop hits.
John Lewis’s Christmas ad, a highly anticipated annual event, has become a national symbol of the holiday season over the past decade, signaling the start of festive shopping.
In the past, their promotions included well-known covers like The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want,” and featured beloved characters such as Monty the Penguin and Buster the Boxer.
However, after years of following a similar theme and facing increased competition from rival retailers, the magic of their holiday ads may have waned.
This year, Marks & Spencer features celebrities breaking with traditional customs in their clothing and homewares ad, while Sainsbury’s showcases real staff members, and the Morrisons campaign highlights singing oven gloves.
Despite its recent struggles and transition to a new agency (Saatchi & Saatchi) after 14 years with Adam&eveDDB, John Lewis claims to have maintained its usual campaign budget.
The online-first launch on Thursday, with TV airings during Friday’s episode of Gogglebox on Channel 4, centers around a young boy named Alfie who, after buying a seed to grow a Christmas tree, discovers he has accidentally planted a giant and mischievous Venus flytrap. The humorous and heartwarming tale unfolds as the plant becomes uncontrollable, leading to a whimsical Christmas celebration with a twist.
This online-first approach reflects industry trends, with a slight decrease in TV ad spending expected this Christmas, while video-on-demand ad spend is on the rise. Online display ads and social media spending have increased, reflecting changing consumer behavior.
John Lewis’s ad, with the tagline “Let Your Traditions Grow,” is accompanied by short clips featuring individual products. Shoppable versions will be accessible on YouTube and Google, along with an extensive range of associated merchandise, including a Snapper the plant soft toy, children’s pyjamas, and Venus flytrap plants.
Snapper the plant will also be featured in the Christmas lights at Kew Gardens in London and as a 5-meter-tall installation climbing the front of John Lewis’s Oxford Street store in London.
The John Lewis Christmas advert takes a unique approach by featuring a boy and his Venus flytrap, a departure from the usual glitz and glamour seen in other ads.
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