AIBU to think the John Lewis Christmas ad is crap?

[EmeryisntthenewWenger]

I really usually enjoy the JL Christmas ad but this year it’s bloody awful!

The Boots ones are always crap because they always try to be sentimental. But their 3 for 2 gifts aren’t exactly sentimental or special. I don’t exactly well up when someone buys me a body lotion set.

I just don’t get the John Lewis advert. I’m clearly missing something.
I usually skip through adverts as I record everything. But deliberately waited after Corrie to see what all the fuss was about. What an anti climax!

I’m not sure what people aren’t ‘getting’? The message is clearly that a gift given as a child can lead to great things (Elton john was given a piano, he became a world famous musician). There isn’t any more to it than that is there?

@nevermorelenore so true. Boots did far better when they had the 'here come the girls' campaign.

It's a lovely trailer for his tour and movie, rubbish Christmas advert tho.

I like it.
It does feel a bit like a trailer for the Elton movie coming out next year but honestly it doesn't bother me. I'm looking forward to watching the film too.

These days retailers need to cut costs - has the film part funded this?...possibly. Has Elton made a massive contribution to popular culture and charity...absolutely!

The amount of money he was paid to do this seems wrong... Christmas for giving and spreading joy etc shame the fee wasn't donated.

Not keen personally on the ad, have seen better.

It looks like a bad rip off of Ed Sheeran's Photograph video.

Yes the Boots ad is very good, and apt for a lot of us

i dont like the sainsbury one

The John Lewis advert is actually an advert for the new Elton John film coming out.

Have just watched this with 11 year old DS. I asked him if it was a Christmas ad and he was completely baffled.

I think YABU to care that much about an advert

Elton probably paid them! Not their finest piece of work.

DP sat down and watched it in silence. His considered opinion was summed up in 4 words.
"Well, that was shite"

JL ad is pure shite !

Well I loved it. The message for me was about a single mother who saved hard to buy her son an amazing Christmas present. I had to fight back tears watching it. I love that song too.
As an aside I don't have the traditional family size (have one child) so I'm enjoying the Christmas ads this year that aren't depicting big, happy extended families. Christmas adverts wth rosy cheeked, sparkly big happy families enjoying themselves at Christmas make me unhappy and bitter! I love seeing families that don't have 2.4 children or have gay parents depicted in the media.

I quite like it, and I'm not particularly an Elton John fan. I 'awwwed' when it reached the Elton Jr stage.

What perplexes me though is why people are suddenly so invested in Christmas ads. How long have JL ads been an event? 5 years? Get over it. It's not exactly a set in stone tradition like Christmas trees, or falling out with an aunty over a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Have to say I did hate that dreary Smiths ad they had a few years ago. Dreary child, dreary setting, dreary family. Too 'Ken Loach does Crimbo' for my liking.

And that Boots ad with 'she's me mum'. Just no.

I like it. Nice message about a piano given in childhood shaping a person's life. It doesn't have the latest mobile phone or computer game or other must-have commercial shit in it, thank goodness. And thankfully no twee made up fluffy creatures.

I actually quite liked it; the message was clear. The downside is that a lot of people watching mya never be able to afford a piano.

It’s not just the cost of the piano, but the lessons that follow, music, exams etc all cost a lot.

Naveloranges

I agree.
Pianos are out of reach for many people.

Cramped housing, low funds for buying a piano, keeping it tuned, the cost of lessons.
Not possible for many families.

The ad is so arrogantly middle class.

The advert is not about pianos - it could be anything- a telescope, cookery set whatever- making a difference to someone’s life.

Yes, anyone thinking it's all about the piano is massively missing the point.

It's about gifts that make a difference. In Elton John's case it just happened to be a piano.