John Lewis Leans On ET’s Playbook For Alien-Inspired Christmas Spot

Arguably the most anticipated ad of the year – the Christmas work from British retailer John Lewis – has dropped and, as in years past, the spot has already got people talking.

Called “Unexpected guest”, the spot’s the work of John Lewis’ longstanding creative agency, adam&eveDDB.

At two-minutes long, the spot follows a young boy (Nathan) who befriends an alien (Skye) whose spaceship has crash landed on earth. It delivers themes of friendship, the festive spirit, right through to loving aliens (a metaphor for Europe’s refugee influx or racism generally?) The ad also appears to have leaned heavily on the the 1982 kids’ classic film ET.

As in year’s past, John Lewis will also bring the ad alive in-store. There will be versions of the spaceship available in the toy department; two Snapchat lenses; and a gamified virtual experience for My John Lewis members exclusively. A version of Nathan’s Christmas jumper is also going on sale, with 10 percent of the profits going to charity.

The soundtrack to ad the is a cover of Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder’s classic Together in Electric Dreams, sung by Lola Young, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter from south London.

Check it out below:

Sadly, reaction to the ad hasn’t been all favourable. John Lewis has already been forced to protect cast members in the ad from bigots who called out the retailer for being “too woke” by featuring a Black family in the spot.

John Lewis customer director, Claire Pointon, said that the retailer had protocols in place to protect its young cast.

“We always have a duty of care to anyone who is in our adverts and one of the things myself and the rest of the team are really passionate about is casting on talent,” Pointon told news site Metro UK.

Pointon added: “That’s the first thing. We didn’t have any prescriptive points of view. We wanted to represent a modern Britain, quite frankly, and that’s our customer base.

“I think it’s shocking when you get that [racist abuse] and unfortunately you do get racist abuse on certain stuff,” Pointon said.

The bigots aside, most praised the spot and its tear-inducing themes. Check out some of the social media reaction below:

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Christmas Campaign john lewis