Let’s make this 100% clear, this is not a commentary on John Lewis in any way, but rather is about how people sometimes react to the mainstream media.
So the context is this, every Christmas in the UK, John Lewis produce a heart warming advertisement that is designed to tug at the heart strings and often as ads go, is quite entertaining. This can be a highly effective strategy, so let me illustrate why by telling you about a reaction to their offering for this year. Some like to record things such the “X-Factor” and then start watching about 30 or 40 mins out of sync with the actual broadcast so that they can happily fast forwards over the ads or any other dull bits. Last night, I observed folks speeding over bits of the program as usual, and then stopping and rewinding to watch the latest John Lewis ad.
Why?
Well because it is the heart warming story of a young girl who reaches out to a very distant lonely elderly relation on the moon and make him happy by sending him a Christmas gift, and as you might imagine, the saccharine and seasonal sentimentality and been dutifully applied by the truck load, so as a clip it does work.
Some however simply can’t resist, this is too tempting a target, and so a satire version of the ad has already been created … enjoy …
It will also be interesting to see if John Lewis roll with this or start calling their lawyers. One hopes that have a good sense of humour, and perhaps also recognise that it will be giving them rather a lot of free advertising.
The banner at the end of the satire version reads …
