John Lewis launches £6m Christmas campaign celebrating the joy of giving

The anticipation and joy of giving the perfect gift to someone you love is the theme behind the emotive £6million John Lewis Christmas advertising campaign which launched today.

As part of the campaign the much-anticipated Christmas advert, which will debut virally on Facebook and Youtube on Friday (November 11) at 9am, will be broadcast on Saturday (November 12) in the high-profile ad break during the X Factor live show on ITV1 at 8:45pm.

The advert follows a little boy as he impatiently counts down the days and minutes until Christmas morning. We see him tapping his fingers out of boredom, gazing out of the window as autumn becomes winter, dashing to bed early to will the day away and even trying to cast a spell to speed time up. Throughout, the viewer is led to believe that the boy can't wait to open his own gifts on Christmas morning, only to find in the final reveal that beneath his impatience lies an eagerness to give a gift that he has lovingly wrapped to his parents.

Created by advertising agency Adam & Eve, the ad is set to a cover of The Smiths 'Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want' sung by singer songwriter and pianist Slow Moving Millie*, and is directed by Dougal Wilson. Wilson also directed John Lewis's award-winning Never Knowingly Undersold advert in spring 2010 featuring the Billy Joel hit 'Always a Woman', performed by Fyfe Dangerfield from the Guillemots.

This year's advert also builds on the success of last year's Christmas advert which featured Ellie Goulding singing a cover of the Elton John classic 'Your Song' which reached number two in the official UK chart.

The 60-second TV advert, which will be viewed by 44 million people at least once, runs from November 12 for five weeks, supported by a combination of 90, 30 and 20 second versions of the advert as well as in-store and online marketing, including a significant push on the retailer's social media channels. A print campaign focusing on John Lewis's top 100 gifts for Christmas will run from December 1 for three weeks.

Slow Moving Millie's cover of The Smiths' track will be available to buy on iTunes from 9am on Friday (November 11) and the advert can be viewed at www.youtube.com/JohnLewisRetail and http://www.johnlewis.com/tvad .

John Lewis director of marketing Craig Inglis said: 'It's a magical feeling when you find that perfect present for someone, There's a great sense of anticipation from the moment you buy it to the moment you give the gift on the big day. That feeling is exactly what we've tried to capture with this year's Christmas campaign.'

Slow Moving Millie said: 'John Lewis is a British institution and being part of their Christmas advert is so exciting. That they use these adverts to champion new and emerging artists is wonderful and I'm very grateful.'

Notes to editors

*Slow Moving Millie
Singer, songwriter and pianist, Amelia Warner writes and performs under the name Slow Moving Millie. Her emergence onto the music scene has been anything but ordinary. Originally immersed in an acting career from an early age, she discovered her talent for songwriting by creating scores for films. Having developed an impressive reputation and fan base from scores for film and TV Amelia signed to Island Records and is currently is in the studio recording her debut album, due for release next summer, with award winning producer Charlie Hugall (Florence and The Machine / Ellie Goulding).

The John Lewis Partnership - The John Lewis Partnership operates 35 John Lewis shops across the UK (29 department stores and six John Lewis at home), johnlewis.com and 268 Waitrose supermarkets. The business has annual gross sales of over £8.2bn. It is the UK's largest example of worker co-ownership where all 76,500 staff are Partners in the business.

John Lewis - John Lewis, 'Britain's favourite retailer 2010'* and 'Multiple Department Store of the Year 2010' ** typically stocks more than 350,000 separate lines in its department stores. The website stocks over 150,000 products focused on the best of fashion, beauty, home and giftware and electrical items including online exclusives. johnlewis.com is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK. ( www.johnlewis.com ). John Lewis Insurance offers a range of comprehensive insurance products - home, car, wedding and event, travel and pet insurance and life cover - delivering the usual values of expertise, trust and customer service expected from the John Lewis brand.

John Lewis is proud to be the official department store provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  

John Lewis and London 2012 - As part of this partnership with LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) John Lewis operates official London 2012 shops within its Oxford Street branch and Stratford City shops. John Lewis is helping to furnish lounge and reception areas at key Games-time venues as well as offering Partners (staff) the opportunity to support LOCOG in the operation and build-up to the Games. Further to the sponsorship with LOCOG, John Lewis Partnership has developed 'Partners in Sport' an initiative to put something back into the community through sport which includes sponsoring several London 2012 hopefuls as well as funding sports coaches.
* Verdict consumer satisfaction index, January 2011
** The Drapers Awards for fashion retail, November 2010
You can follow John Lewis on the following social media channels:

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Enquiries

For further information please contact:

Siân Grieve
Press Officer (Community)
John Lewis
Telephone: 020 7592 6887
Mobile: 07525 271 812
Email: sian_grieve@johnlewis.co.uk