John Lewis Christmas Advert: The subtle messages you might have missed

The John Lewis Christmas advert is as synonymous with the festive season as mince pies.

The retailer is renowned for its deeply moving blockbuster-style adverts, which are rumoured to cost millions of pounds and take months of preparation.

This year, however, the advert is much more low-key. As opposed to focusing on one central character with an emotive narrative, the two-minute film is dedicated to celebrating small human acts of kindness.

It begins with a young boy and girl in a snowy village, looking up at the boy’s football stuck in a tree. In a bid to help, the girl opens her umbrella, which turns into a ginormous red heart that she flings at the tree, nudging the football loose. 

The heart is then passed between a series of animated scenes featuring an array of characters and animals.

It’s the first time that John Lewis and Waitrose have partnered to launch a joint Christmas campaign with a philanthropic purpose, having chosen two charities, Home-Start and FareShare, to raise money for.

FareShare helps those facing food poverty and boasts England footballer Marcus Rashford as its ambassador, while Home-Start supports parents in need.

But there’s more to this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert than meets the eye. Here are the subtle messages you might have missed.

In one scene, we see an animated version of the little girl at the start sitting on a bus. 

She is sat next to a woman wearing a navy uniform, a red headscarf and a landyard with her name, “Salina”, written on it alongside a blue NHS hospital cross logo.

The little girl’s blue glasses are broken, so Salina takes them and puts a heart-shaped sticker on to fix them. The duo share a sweet smile.

It’s a touching but tacit tribute to the thousands of NHS staffers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic, often putting their own lives at risk to save those of others.

What makes this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert particularly unique is the way it celebrates different forms of moving art, featuring animation, claymation, CGI and cinematography.

There are nine vignettes in total created by eight different artists, including Chris Hopewell, who has made music videos for Radiohead, and French animator Sylvain Chomet. This was a conscious decision and a way of supporting the creative industry, which has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.

“Instead of a single production team, multiple artists were selected, giving employment to many people across the creative industry.” John Lewis & Partners explained in a statement.

It might be best known as “the John Lewis Christmas advert” but ever since John Lewis and Waitrose rebranded as John Lewis and Partners, everything they produce is a joint venture. 

And this year’s Christmas campaign is no different, as is made clear by the numerous shots of Waitrose shopping bags that we see in the advert.

We see a Waitrose bag being dropped off at a neighbour’s doorstop and again in a second shot when the neighbour offers his neighbour something from the bag.

This year, John Lewis has released its main Christmas advert alongside a shorter 30-second one dedicated to promoting its two chosen charities: FareShare and Home-Start.

The complementary advert was created by four post-graduate students from Kingston University who were chosen “for their distinctive styles, which are joyful, yet humble", John Lewis & Partners said in a statement. 

Like the main advert, the shorter one is centred around celebrating human kindness and explains the importance of supporting families in need this Christmas. 

In the short film, we see a young boy running in various animated styles from his home to another with a Christmas present in tow.

In previous years, John Lewis has selected an established musician to perform a cover of a well-known song as the soundtrack of its Christmas ad.

This time around, they’ve chosen Brit Award-winning artist Celeste to write and perform an original song written specifically in keeping with the advert’s theme, titled “A Little Love”. 

The haunting and emotive song has a philanthropic purpose, too, as every time the track is downloaded, Celeste and her record label Polydor will donate 10p to John Lewis’ Christmas campaign.

The acts of kindness depicted in the advert were all inspired by those of the British public during lockdown.

We see a snowman offer up his head as a wheel to a couple trying to get home for Christmas and a bag of Waitrose food is delivered to an elderly couple, who would have had to self-isolate during lockdown and been unable to buy food themselves.

We also see the elderly couple offer up some of their food to a lonely elderly neighbour.

For more information about this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, click here.