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It’s been three years now since the first significant John Lewis Christmas Ad, which made a huge impact on both British television audiences and the media advertising industry. In the LoveLove office a few days ago we heard that the latest John Lewis Christmas Advert had been released, and all flocked around a computer screen to see what they had produced this year.

Can you imagine such an event happening in 2010? “Look, there’s a Christmas TV advert for a Homeware Company just out!” No one would have batted an eyelid. Except then, in 2011, they did. John Lewis’ “The Long Wait” stood out for having a significantly more sentimental and relatable storyline than any of the competition that year, or ever in recent memory in terms of Advertising.

However, year after year, John Lewis has managed to create something that’s ramped audiences up to a near frenzy. All for something designed to sell scarves and alarm clocks.

There have been huge amounts of both praise and criticism over this year’s advert; most people now anticipate it with so much excitement that for them it can’t fail to deliver, they’ve already decided that The Bear and the Hare is the most emotional and heartfelt piece of filmmaking they’ve seen since last year’s Snowman Advert . Others have been typically condescending and negative about this year’s offering. “It’s making Christmas more capitalistic than ever before.” “It’s a shill. Their animated characters aren’t adorable; they’re just fooling you to take your money” are, to paraphrase a whole raft of Tweets, the kind of things being said.”

Obviously all opinion is subjective, but let’s just step back a little and look at Christmas advertising, or even advertising in general as a concept. They’re designed to sell products; that’s always been their primary function. That’s what they were for before John Lewis, that’s what they’ll be after John Lewis. All that John Lewis have really done is introduce a much stronger narrative into the way that they sell their products, which has had a domino effect upon all of the other advertisers, who are now trying to create something which ignites a similar level of appeal for audiences. This isn’t a bad thing at all, and it certainly isn’t some kind of Machiavellian scheme to steal all of your money. They’re all just much more considered and better made Christmas Adverts.

The results of this are really seen in full force for the first time this year. While the John Lewis Advert has interjected retrospective appeal through creating a simplistic 2D animation, evoking the feel of a Disney movie without directly ripping off any familiar plot, others have gone down a less subtle pathway.

The Marks and Spencer advert is possibly the most obvious rival to John Lewis’; Marks and Spencer have seemingly been motivated to create something that steals the monopoly from John Lewis in terms of both storytelling, production values and audience appeal. It certainly wins in terms of the values, it’s excessively lavish and over the top. They’ve approached a similar concept in a different light, and added a narrative that fits its flamboyant visuals, cropping around half a dozen children’s stories to relate its brand to Christmas.

Whether Marks and Spencer’s advert holds more audience appeal remains to be seen. It is certainly some serious competition for John Lewis. Both are level pegging in terms of Youtube audience views.

We have our very own advert being released over Christmas. Look for our updates about a very special advert we produced, premiering on December 24th.

Written by Maxim Sorokopud

Images / videos are copyright, owned by John Lewis and Marks & Spencers.