John Lewis launches its £6m Christmas advertising campaign

The ad uses a cover of The Smiths’ ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ sang by singer-songwriter Slow Moving Millie.

It debuts on Facebook and Youtube on Friday and will be broadcast during the high-profile ad break of X Factor this Saturday.

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.

However, rather than not being able to wait to open his own gifts, the boy is impatient to give the gift he has for his parents.

The 60 second TV advert, which will be viewed by 44 million people at least once, will run from November 12 for five weeks as part of the department store’s £6m Christmas campaign.

It will be 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 3 weeks.

The advert is created by agency Adam & Eve and is directed by Dougal Wilson who also did the department store’s award-winning Never Knowingly Undersold advert from spring last year which featured Billy Joel’s ‘Always a Women’ song.

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.”