John Lewis Christmas ad: How the cost of living crisis changed the battle for best festive advert

It might barely be November, but the battle for the best Christmas advert is already in full flow, with John Lewis launching its festive offering today.

And while they might be a staple of our Christmas diet now – as much a tradition as pigs in blankets or carol singers – the hype around festive adverts wasn’t always such a big part of the calendar.

Today’s clip from John Lewis comes a week after Asda revealed their Christmas ad, which used classic footage from the 2003 film Elf, and hot on the heels of festive clips from Tesco, Argos, Morrisons and Aldi.

But with food bills rising, surging energy costs, mortgage hikes and reports of Britons cutting back ahead of the festive season, retailers have a difficult sales pitch to make this year.

A topic that is ‘so much bigger than Christmas’

John Lewis used their 90 seconds to shine a spotlight on an “often overlooked issue” – children in care.

The Beginner – set to a cover of Blink 182’s All the Small Things by US artist Mike Geier – shows a man as he struggles painfully to master skateboarding in the build-up to Christmas.

Viewers are left questioning the motive behind his perseverance until the final scene, when a social worker arrives with young teenager Ellie, who has arrived at her new foster home carrying her skateboard.

Kate Hardcastle, a consumer expert and chief executive of Insight with Passion, told Sky News: “Getting the tone of voice was really important for this year, and it was probably quite guessable it was going to be around corporate social responsibility because how can you do anything other else right now?

“But this is an incredibly fragile topic and needs handling with care.”

The ad was created with input from partner charities Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland.

Alongside its longer-term work providing apprenticeship opportunities within the John Lewis Partnership for people leaving care, the retailer said it would make donations of Christmas decorations, food and gifts.

Ms Hardcastle said: “I would never say it missed the mark because the topic matters so much to me and I think any awareness is important.

“But I think the topic is much bigger than a Christmas advert and that’s because our care system support is needed 365 days a year, not just for Christmas.”

The ad is almost entirely devoid of product placement except for two brief glimpses of the retailer’s Lewis Bear toy.

But consumers can still purchase a number of products linked to the story including the £30 bear, £19 Lewis Bear pyjamas, a £5 Lewis Bear tote bag and a Rampage Skateboard for £34.99, with 25% of the sales going to the two affiliated charities.

The retail giant declined to reveal its budget for the ad.

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How John Lewis changed the Christmas game

In the early 2000s, adverts were filled with as “many products as you could find” because “every frame costs money, so you want to show as much product as possible”, said Ms Hardcastle

This was seen with Marks and Spencer, who ruled the roost for years with their product-heavy offerings.

But in 2011, John Lewis changed the game with The Long Wait, a story of a young boy waiting desperately to give his mum a Christmas present.

Dr Annmarie Hanlon, a senior lecturer in digital and social media marketing at Cranfield School of Management, told Sky News: “John Lewis did it differently. They told a story, rather than saying ‘here are the products, please buy these’.

“It is a classic marketing technique, it is telling a story, and it takes us back to that childhood notion of storytelling and it’s a comfortable place to be.”

And from there the battle for best Christmas advert, as it is know it today, began.

How to sell during a cost of living crisis

But as Christmas approaches this year, almost half (48%) of Brits have said they are planning to cut down on purchases – including festive activities and gifts – to save money, according to a report from Barclaycard.

Of these consumers, six in 10 will be spending less on gifts for family and friends, 44% will cut back on festive food and drink, including turkey and mulled wine, and two-fifths will curb their spending on Christmas parties and socialising.

Ms Hardcastle said John Lewis made the right choice picking a lower-priced toy as their feature product – the £35 skateboard.

She said: “This understands where people are right now. If they had put a £200 product on there, there would have been an immediate backlash of ‘how are people meant to afford this?'”

Brands ‘played it safe’

Matt Bourn, from the Advertising Association, said: “It is clear that advertisers and their agency and media partners are sensitive to the mood of the nation, the importance of being together, gifting and helping people to celebrate despite the geopolitical issues impacting us all.”

But Dr Hanlon said most of this year’s adverts “fell flat”, which indicates brands “don’t want to demonstrate they are spending millions on an ad when people are wearing extra jumpers and not putting the heating on”.

“I don’t think this year was meant to be a year for an iconic advert,” added Ms Hardcastle.

But she said she understands why brands have played it safe: “To have got it wrong this year, you would have been as villainous as the queue-jumping scandal.

“I think everyone just wants to say, let this Christmas be kind, let this Christmas be safe.

“And that’s how we feel about Christmas this year ourselves. No one’s telling you, they’re going to do some massive flash thing.

“Everyone’s saying we just going to keep it simple. We’re just going to go back to basics, getting the family together, with fewer presents, maybe a bit less food, and the currency of the adverts fits in with that.”