The bear and the hare – how did it fare?

Published on by MishMashMamma

So hands up those of you who have not seen the latest John Lewis Christmas Ad???

I’m sure most of you already have. What was your verdict? Sad? Soppy? Boring? Brilliant?

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet – please click on here and enjoy…

I thought it was just lovely and so heart warming. No, I didn’t cry the first time I saw it, but I did well up the second time round when I showed it to my husband!

The market-savvy, creative guys behind the ad know exactly how to tug at your heart strings (and maybe your purse strings too if the latest sales figures are anything to go by!). I mean who doesn’t love a little animal animation advert?

The ad received just under 90,000 tweets over the weekend that it first aired, and around 4 million views on YouTube (a figure which is rising all the time). As a direct result, John Lewis acquired 7,000 new twitter followers, and in the week after the ad was shown, reported sales of over £100 million for the first time in 2013.

Not bad for a short story starring a bear and a hare. But, that is exactly the point. We all love stories. We love happy endings and we love seeing people (or animals) who care for one another. It touches us. We get it. It makes us feel good. It takes us to places – somewhere only we know.

The best part of the advert for me is that they are not shoving toys, clothes, and other ware so common with Christmas time consumerism down your throat. The only thing they are promoting is finding the perfect gift for a loved one – whatever that may be – in this instance, an alarm clock.

It is the season of good will after all.

Clever, cute and oh so cuddly!

So did it get you too?

JohnLewis Bear

 

17 thoughts on “The bear and the hare – how did it fare?”

  1. Yes, hadn’t seen it until I read your post (though I had heard about it), a bit teary, agree with everything you say (can’t even get cynical about the fact that the bear should be in hibernation…perhaps that’s the point). Dropping in from #PoCoLo

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Sarah! It is a lovely ad, and yes it is cynical, but somehow we still manage to overlook that. Maybe, it is because we are all kids at heart.

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  2. My hands are up! The alarm clock at the end of such a lovely and poignant animation followed by the name “John Lewis” – is it not a very subtle and symbolic suggestion – “get up and get quickly to John Lewis for the best gift for your loved ones. If true, how much more savvy can one get?

    More importantly for people like me, any novelty with creativity that is thought provoking is simply joyful – so many thanks for the beautiful piece.

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    1. Yes, these clever people definitely know what they are doing, and so do we, but that still doesn’t stop us going out and buying their ware! Maybe it just gets us at a subconcious level and we can’t help but get emotionally carried along…

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  3. Hi MishMash, the bear reminds me of Albi (our sleepy big bear) and our darling Max used to ride on his back and we used to call Max “little rabbit” so it is very poignant for me and makes me cry every time! A lovely little Christmas movie.

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  6. Yes, I like it for all the same reasons – because its not shoving toys/ clothes/ appliances down our throats, but reminding us what Christmas should be about- spending time with loved ones. Still don’t think it tops the one depicting a woman growing up over the changing years, accompanied by the ‘she’ song. Genius. #pocolo

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    1. Absolutely. My fav JL ad us the one where the little boy cannot wait till Xmas day only to ignore his presents and run to give a present to his parents. All about the giving!

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  7. I have to say that I really don’t like it. I am normally one of those people who cry at EVERYTHING so it came as a bit of a shock to me. I loved the snowman one last year. I think it is the soundtrack. I do like Lily Allen but every year these advertisers seem to have to put a song on with a woman half singing/half speaking in some sort of mopey way and it really gets on my wick now! I love the new Morrisons advert with the dancing gingerbread man and Ant and Dec – it’s fun! I hope you don’t think I’m doing a downer on you – just my opinion! :))) Thanks for linking to PoCoLo x

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    1. Don’t be silly Vic, everyone can have their own say. I’m not too keen on the song either, and that type of singing is getting pretty repetitive. I did like the ad – maybe I’m just a big softie at heart! But my best JL ad is the one with the little boy. 🙂

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  9. do you know, I didn’t get it for a few viewings. It was actually last night when I read the words “there once was an animal who had never seen Christmas.” Then I got it, and yes, I cried 🙂

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