Have a very non-Scrooge up for that.
My six year old received a "thank you" letter from Santa, yesterday. He kept it in his pocket all day and then slept with it under his pillow. Today he's gone off to a birthday party leaving me with strict instructions NOT TO LOSE IT. Christmas with kids is a hoot.

He's had a bit of a tough life so far but copes pretty well, all things considered. I asked him what his Christmas wish would be and he told me it would be "not to have any more medicine".
I wandered off with a speck of dust in my eye.

I am beginning to put up barriers against being "emotionally engaged" by TV ads. It's happening too much.

and I'll leave it at that

But, just occasionally, they show themselves to be very, very clever and creative knobs.

This is such an occasion.

I prefer this version of it

It ties in well with Charlie Brooker's theory that there is a dog's head in the box.

*sobs. Hopes Mrs Bob doesn't hear.*

BASTARDS.

I am such a complete wuss that I actually considered starting a thread to find out if anyone is a bigger wuss than me (don't worry folks, I've already copyrighted it). And yet this ad leaves me completely cold. I really don't understand the lachrymosity it seems to have unleashed. It's quite sweet, and that's about as much as I can say.

What have they done to this beautiful song?

Will I ever again be able to watch the art gallery sequence from Ferris Bueller's Day Off without thinking of John fricking Lewis?

What am I going to get my Mum for Xmas?

that is a dreadful version of a great Smiths tune.

Some stage school kiddies and a piano cover being played like those dozy "I like old movies" twats from that dating ad sounding like a lush who can't remember the words.

Watch the end of "This Is England" when Clayhill (in the words of Louis Walsh feckin' own that that song) and the images brilliantly echo its lyrical bleakness.

I hate the over-commercialism of Christmas - but I find this advert fascinating - the little boy is great and so is his brother? in the gruffalo gear.

It helps if you have children and can remember how long it took for crimble to arrive when you were young.

And so much better than that bloody coke advert!

The Co-Op also seems to be becoming more dominant. They are taking over corner shops everywhere.

These are, essentially, communist organisations.

COMMIES! GODDAMM COMMIES!

We'll all be speaking Russian by Easter, mark my words.

Or Chinese. Possibly.

And it won't be Easter, either. It'll be the Spring Festival Of Our Glorious People Who Like The Organic Chicken Thigh Fillets.

it annoys me on so many levels I don't even know where to start...so I won't.

the b-side of William It Was Really Nothing which I bought someday in 1985, having been reviewed by Pat Nevin in the NME and made me feel great.
Happy for them to make more money. As for John Lewis, I don't really know where or what it is. Certainly no shop of that name near me.

Thanks for posting, Chris. I hadn't seen that before.

I'm not one for getting over-emotional about these things (Toy Story 3, which was supposed to have me crying my eyes out, didn't have that effect at all) but I found that quite moving. Maybe because even as a middle-aged man I still love Christmas.

The business is well run, the staff are professional and the shops are warm and inviting, especially when the frost's on the ground. It's when you actually go to do some Christmas shopping in John Lewis that the awful reality hits home. These blank faced consumers you're rubbing shoulders with actually don't give a shit about the co-operative nature of the enterprise, the quality and taste of the Chinese made geegaws on sale, or the sheer niceness of the shopping environment. No, none of it matters anymore, here at the retail coal face in the run up to the year's best sales figures, the only thing left in their minds is that they just want to get the fucking Christmas shopping done.

Hard hearted old curmudgeon. - Yeah, thats me.

I thought it was sentimental tosh.

Mind you, the mother...

My 'emotional reaction' to it was that he needs a smack upside the face with a giant comedy 'Vic & Bob' style frying pan.

of his parents' credit cards did he nick to buy the thing?

I remember the first year when I was allowed to buy Christmas presents for my family, I must have been around five years old.
My mum walked me to the small tobacconist/corner shop, gave me some money and waited outside.
I was in there for an eternity, looking at the small and odd assortment of knick-knacks, stationery and candy trying to figure out what would suit the different members of my family.
In the end I just bought as many little things as I could afford and saved the decisions for when I got them home.
Armed with wrapping paper, ribbons, tape, scissors and Christmas stickers I then picked up one item at a time and thought "who would this be a good gift for ?", wrote their name on the sticker and forgot all about what I had just wrapped.
As was evident on Christmas Eve when the family members unwrapped their presents and my dad found himself looking at three different phone books...
"Looks like I'll be making a lot of calls this year" was his dry comment, and I felt extremely embarrassed.
The year after that I managed to buy fewer items than I needed, so my two older sisters got to share a packet of wet-wipes for Christmas.
It took me a few years of trial and error to get to grips with the art of buying gifts.
(These days I am proud to say that I have a solid reputation among friends and family to always come up with the perfect gifts, so I did eventually learn.)

Am in the "sentimental old claptrap" camp as far as the advert's concerned, but equally I'm a bit of sucker for the "breathy voiced cover version" so I don't mind the song itself.

There's more on Slow Moving Millie (for it is she/they who're responsible) and including a link to the song in full, here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/11/new-band-slow-moving-millie

That song meant a lot to me in my youth. Hate to see it used to sell bourgeois tat to the Margo & Jeremys of this world. Is Moz skint or something?

Thanks for this!

that proceedings start earlier each year...
The Great Escape is on Channel 5 right now!!

Merry Christmas everybody.

http://youtu.be/TRbp0ZIehk0

(Edit: How the F@*! do you get YouTube vids to embed?! I've copied & pasted the code, but it comes up blank)

I usually steer clear of these threads lest i annoy anyone with my opinionated ways - but I have to with this one.

I am no stranger to a bit of the old 'i have something in my eye, when did we last dust??' whilst watching TV, but this didn't have that effect on me at all! I get the twist & the clever filming but I cannot understand the outpouring of emotion over it on my twitter & facebook feeds! At the end of the day it is an ad for a department store is it not?!

This advert on the other hand is a lot better done and has the major plus of advertising something worthwhile;

new barnardos advert

i'll save my tears for this one i think

So, this six year old is one of the few that doesn't believe in Santa as he bought his parents a pressie. Oh, and how did he find a time slot to secretly wrap the pressie? He must of used scissors and stuff to get that present so neatly wrapped - mmm a six year old left to wrap pressies with scissors unsupervised - call the social services. Finally, where the hell did he get the spondies to buy such a big pressie and the ostentatious wrapping? Must be a banker's brat. Ergo: THEY DON"T DESERVE THAT PRESSIE!!

:-)

is that the FPO will want a copy of the song now it has been steamrollered into mediocrity and has reached an audience of more than five million.

of course, would be this one:

...but nothing special, and not a patch on the 'just like a woman' campaign of a couple of years ago (same goes for the music). Not entirely certain why it would reduce grown adults to tears (and I speak as someone who scored an 'I'm pleased it's dark in the cinema' on the First-Ten-Minutes-Of-Up scale), but it's clearly done it's job.

On the other hand, it's certainly sold me a Gruffalo costume - they look fantastic.

On a more serious note, McLongWhiteClud's few words at the top of this thread made me shut the office door while I demisted the glasses. I hope your boy gets his wish - and you get yours - one day.

.. but you'd have to be a real sop to swallow that. Doesn't strike you as genuine in any way, either in the editing, the shooting, or the 'performance'. Far too contrived and pushing the obvious buttons.

but ghastly child.

Can someone explain: where would a child that young get the money - or even have the wherewithal in the first place - to buy a gift that big?

Didn't move me at all. The whole ad felt like an eternity. I don't like having my buttons pressed.

Don't like the cover version either.

(Video is Adam Buxton's 15 Step/Seven Video)

I'd like to see ones where he finds his parents:

a) at it
or
b) putting together a bike, his main present from 'Santa'.

Luckily only (b) has happened to me thus far.

I loved the ad, even though I didn't like the cover version much, and I too had a tear in my eye.

I unfollowed Charlie Brooker on Twitter for his foul rants about this ad, the overgrown, Xbox-bothering twonk. Yes, yes, yes, the cover's not much cop, the parents would be traipsing around exhausted in their John Lewis dressing gowns long before the sun came streaming into their bedroom (on December 25th the sun, at best, dribbles apologetically) as the younger son rattled around with the box of his big present on his head, and NO child has ever done what the older child does on awaking on Christmas Day.
But it's beautifully made, it's funny & the kid is fantastic. The cockles of this dedicated Yule avoider's heart are still being warmed by it, even on the fifth viewing tonight.
Mind you, the little bugger's made a rubbish job of wrapping his present after making such a song and dance about giving it.

... in every way, apart from it's well made (big deal).

I'm utterly gobsmacked by the fuss it has caused (mainly on Twitter and the internet rather than the real world admittedly. Oh, and the Guardian which is OBSESSED with it), because who watches TV ads now?

I've seen this one owing to this thread and links on Twitter, but not on actually telly. Doesn't everyone just forward the ads through nowadays?

(I don't have Sky Plus before you ask, just Freeview).

as a result of seeing this advert? The shop isn't mentioned until the end, and the ad assumes that you know what they sell.

Perhaps it creates some awareness of the shops, but that must be hard to assess. I was in John Lewis last week, because I know that they sell the kind of domestic goods I was looking for (storage boxes). This advert didn't tell me about that.

I've only known a couple of people in advertising, but I've had the impression from them that this kind of general brand promotion is an act of faith by both the client and the agency. It just seems like a good idea, but you never really know if it's worked in increasing sales, unlike say adverts that tell you that Bacardi is £15 a litre at a supermarket.

Very funny.

it's a great add because we're all talking about it, job done. The cover version is the true meaning of "meh", but here's the thing, well I wonder if this will increase sales of The Smiths box set. I've had them on my iPod all day today because I wanted to hear PPPLMGWIW and I haven't listened to them for a while and I've dropped hint the size of that kids present that I want the remastered cd's for Christmas. Mozza and Marr up to a bit of product placement?

Cynical, manipulative ad that's totally unrealistic. What kid does that these days? If ever?

And apparently it's a dog's head in the box....

If you dislike the John Lewis Christmas ad, try watching the Littlewood's Christmas ad instead. Ghastly.