Vinyls Say More Than 1000 Words in John Lewis' 2025 Christmas Ad

Vinyls say more than 1000 words in this year's John Lewis Christmas ad, "Where Love Lives."

As a complete antidote to toxic masculinity, the brand pulls at the heartstrings with this emotional father-son bonding clip. But is it doing its job as an ad? How much memorable brand association is there? And does the parenting insight, and subsequent brand play, take too long to get going?

Hear from our guests Tanvir Siddiqui (Fractional CMO) and Simon Valcarcel (Marketing Director at Virgin Media O2) to see whether they found this campaign nailed emotion or just played it safe.

This is automatically generated, so it’s not 100% accurate.

Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a show where brands watch other brands’ ads and discuss what's good and bad about them.

Tanvir Siddiqui 0:08
It's amazing. It's too good. It's a pure master class.

Simon Valcarcel 0:12
The resolve is just, if you can't find the words, there's always a gift.

Tom Ollerton 0:21
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, the creative effectiveness adtech platform. And this week is a special episode. So I think today or yesterday, the new John Lewis ad in the UK was released. For those of you who aren't Brits, John Lewis is a institution of a department store in the UK and the Christmas ads in the UK are a bit like the UK Super Bowl. I would say, it's a fair way to describe them, and John Lewis is always the kind of the centerpiece of that. I would say it's probably one of the few ads of the year that's actually instantly becomes part of culture, even if you have no interest of shopping there at all. People still talk about this ad. Anyway... So before we get to the John Lewis ad, let's meet this week's guests.

Tanvir Siddiqui 1:07
Hello, my name is Tanvir. I'm a Fractional CMO. I work with CPGs and regulated industry.

Simon Valcarcel 1:13
Hello, I'm Simon Valcarcel. I'm Marketing Director at Virgin Media O2.

Tom Ollerton 1:17
Right... What a panel! And I must point out that we were going to talk about a different ad this week. But when this new ad was released, I thought, guys, do you want to do this? And so Tanvir and Simon have very graciously, five minutes ago, having not seen this ad at all, have agreed to review it. So thank you guys so much for that. Right... But let's watch it for everyone else’s benefit.

Tom Ollerton 3:40
On a scale of 1 to 5, on a count of three, hold up your fingers. One, two, three... A five and a five. I'm sure that's made it Ad of the Year so far, so well done. Right. Given that you guys saw this ad for the first time, about six minutes ago. Simon, what was your first thought?

Simon Valcarcel 3:58
I loved it! Like I properly, properly loved it. I am a huge sucker for Christmas ads. It signals the start of Christmas, which puts anxiety into me that I haven't done any shopping yet.

Tanvir Siddiqui 4:13
What a great start to a Christmas season. Within a minute you have emotion, you have feelings, you have tension. You have different phases of life. It's amazing. It's too good. It’s a pure masterclass.

Tom Ollerton 4:24
It does take a very long time to get started. It is a slow burn, this ad.

Simon Valcarcel 4:30
You know, in cinema would be perfect which across this period, across Christmas, you've got Wicked and you've got the latest Avatar movie. So cinema is going to play a big part of that. And people really want to watch the John Lewis Christmas ad. I think there's plenty of time to edit this down for, you know, shorter attention spans just to stop the feed. But I don't know, I think you need a bit of time at Christmas to get in to introduce it. Otherwise, if it was too quick, I think you'd lose the emotion.

Tom Ollerton 4:58
My theory on Christmas is there's a set amount every year of Christmas cheer that you get, and it's an ever depleting amount. It depletes and by, by the time 25th is over, you've got zero. Like no one listens to Mariah after Christmas. I mean, unless you're crazy. Do you know what I mean? Like, at a certain point you run out and it goes from 100% to zero on Christmas Day. My point is, is that this is the first thing I think that we've all seen that's a Christmas ad, right? But if we'd seen 25 Christmas ads and heard Mariah Carey 17,000 times, not 49 mince pies by this point, would we still have the same emotional response to it?

Tanvir Siddiqui 5:30
I think so. People who live in the UK, I think they will feel that emotional connection because there are so much of depth into the whole story. Even if, you know, rest of the industry come up with very emotive storytelling and everything, within one minute, you see, you know, life transition, you see nostalgia, you see the tension between a teenage son and father. There are so much into it and it's so relatable. So I think, you know, I would feel the same, even if I watched 10-20 other Christmas ads.

Simon Valcarcel 6:05
That kind of strained relationship between parents and teenagers is such a strong insight. The thing they've played into perfectly there is, you know, the... When Adolescence came out, it caused a lot of debate around kind of toxic masculinity and what parents' role is in bringing their teenagers up and how do they talk to their kids in a world that's increasingly moving away from the type of world that most parents grew up in, with, with technology. And I think it finds that sweet spot of there's still a hark back to that kind of insight. I think it's just lovely. The resolve is just if you can't find the words, there's always a gift. And I think that's... that's really the power of Christmas sometimes.

Tom Ollerton 6:52
And what is your take on the lack of representation in this ad? This is a very white family doing a very traditional white family thing. Like... Obviously there's nothing wrong with that at all. That really stood out to me as that hasn't been thought about or ignored, or am I being oversensitive?

Tanvir Siddiqui 7:10
Yeah, I'm an Asian. Yeah, but unless you would have told me, I would not actually have picked that up because it's about the Christmas, the period, that emotion. However, after you were saying it, I wonder how they will really go with the social content and everything if they will try to balance it to that 360. It's very natural. I think, that is the mastery of the whole making. Yeah, it is not overtly designed, overtly curated. It just feels natural.

Simon Valcarcel 7:42
Something which they've done brilliantly is it's really hard to do crowds having fun on camera. It's quite difficult to do that if it's 11:00 in the morning in a big studio somewhere, and they've managed to do that brilliantly. You really get the feeling of what it's like to be, you know, 20 years ago and being on the dance floor and that kind of stuff. And I think, I think they've just done that perfectly. And then when the dance floor disappears, I think that, that really sets the scene for the... Yeah, for the kind of emotional kick, really.

Tom Ollerton 8:13
So how would you improve on this though? Would you have any builds? What would your builds be?

Tanvir Siddiqui 8:17
You know, sometimes if things are good, it's just a last mile. Yeah. And if you spend too much of time, there is a diminishing marginal return, where you don't gain anything. So if you ask me, I would not touch anything. I'll just leave it like that. I would focus on, you know, how I bring it to the life with the 360 communication, just not focusing on one ad.

Simon Valcarcel 8:39
So if you have to press me, I would say improving the distinctive brand assets. Because to give consumers the shortest jump between, “Oh, this is an ad. Oh, this is an ad for John Lewis.” I think bringing some of those distinctive brand assets, whatever they may be for, for John Lewis, whether that's the font, the logo. In the past, they've obviously had, you know, key characters with Monty the Penguin, all those kind of things.

Tom Ollerton 9:03
So guys, we're gonna have to wrap it up here, unfortunately. Would you sign off this ad in its current form? On the count of three, yes or no? One, two, three... Okay. Well done, John Lewis, with your emotional vinyl buying ad. Merry Christmas, everyone.

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