John Lewis Xmas Advert

It has properly divided opinion in my office today. It was very much a love or hate division, and seemingly related to personal opinions of Elton John. I managed to convince a few people though, that as said above it’s a heartwarming story, and i do believe that if they had made this exact story about a fictional character it would have been far better received.

However, I also agree that it’s blatantly part of the PR to build up the noise around Elton John ahead of the movie and the tour going on sale tomorrow.

It's the worst one so far. It could be any ad for any brand.

I'm probably in the minority but I really dislike this ad. I should say that I'm a great admirer of Elton's discography. But isn't it funny how Elton's recently revealed farewell tour has a ton of tickets to sell just as this advert is released. I appreciate the sentiment of it but I can't get on board, and I know that's cynical, but when you think back to some of the wonderful adverts there have been in the past this just feels like a lesser effort. Not to mention the recently released/banned Iceland orangutan advert is genuinely brilliant, especially in comparison to this.

I really don't understand why people care about the John Lewis Christmas advert at all...

It's an advert!

Jeremy Vine played Fairytale of New York on his show earlier, but as all today's songs were picked by Children in Need beneficiaries, I'm prepared to make an exception.

Me neither - maybe I'm missing something, but I could swear that John Lewis do not sell pianos.

Sod John Lewis (full of “partners” who seem to spend all day just chatting with other “partners”). Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot is the only Christmas ad I care about.

It's not lazy at all, it's quite smart and it's how marketing works nowadays. No it doesn't reference the movie explicity but it's the same narrative (except they missed the bit where he buys his first line of coke) and it's pushing Elton into the public consciousness even further so will contribute to the interest for the movie and his farewell tour.

I have clearly had a heart of stone as none of the John Lewis adverts of recent years have resonated with me on any sort of emotional level -(apart from the hilarious Darth Vader version of the man in the moon) as they all seem so cynically concocted.

This one though, in my opinion, is the best of the lot, a clear message and not so contrived. And Elton clearly needs the money with all those children to support.

I really do have a problem with adverts becoming an event though. My class of Kids got all excited because the coca cola lorry is coming to a shopping centre nearby. They were't impressed when I pointed out that the M1 is only a couple of miles away, they could see lorries with lights on every night!

Given the lorry has had to scale back it's tour due to protests, maybe they are lucky to live in an area without such stringent sugar police.

I found the ad quite tolerable, at least in visual terms. Nicely executed. Not the best JL ad ever in existence, though, but not the worst thing I've ever seen.

It made my mother cry, but mainly because Your Song was the track used at her brother's funeral and it struck her hard.

Very's Christmas ad has the 'a gift can influence the rest of your life' theme (animation of a little girl who is given  a space/astronomy themed gift and the ad ends with the girl, now a woman, working on the ISS, orbiting earth whilst her parents stand in their garden looking up at the sky.