For many of us, a new John Lewis advert is as big a part of our annual festive traditions as grimacing through a gingerbread latte, snuggling up to a one-star Netflix original and making small-talk with the colleagues you’ve avoided all year at the office Christmas party.
By now, the department store has got a tried and tested formula when it comes to its yearly Christmas ad – usually encompassing a cute kid or two, a friendly (and, indeed, marketable) mascot and a stripped-back cover of a popular song by an act you’ll have forgotten the name of six weeks later.
Well, on Thursday morning, John Lewis unveiled its new Christmas ad for 2024, and this year’s offering might come as a big surprise.
Gone are the saccharine musical covers and animal sidekicks, and in their place is a story rooted in reality about the difficulty so many of us face when we’re trying to get the perfect gift for someone we love.
The ad introduces us to Sally, a young woman scouring John Lewis for a present for her sister.
In the process she, winds up taking a trip through time through her Christmases past, hitting teenage tiffs, awkward first snogs and other priceless memories along the way, with nods to festive family traditions and films like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
The whole thing is also soundtracked by The Verve’s 1998 single Sonnet, amping up the nostalgia even further.
John Lewis’ 2024 Christmas advert is available to watch online now, before airing on TV for the first time during Friday’s editions of Coronation Street, The Last Leg and Gogglebox.