Why’s the John Lewis’ Xmas Ad so bloody menacing!

[Purplefoo]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/04/john-lewis-christmas-advert-countdown-90s-club-classic-where-love-lives

I genuinely thought it was about an abusive dad or a murderous son at first! So intense……

I'd just like to know why Christmas ads start in early November and why the ones from the big high street names are discussed as if they potential Oscar winners.

I’m wondering if the ones who don’t like it have smaller children and not teens?

I know someone will be along to disagree with this at some point but it’s just a thought…

I think it’s utterly cruel towards anybody who is experiencing the loss of a loved one and facing a “first” such as Christmas. I speak as somebody recently bereaved. There is nothing merry about it, it’s miserable and depressing and certainly doesn’t make me want to shop in JL. Lots of people I know have said the same.

Wrong shop. She’s M&S.

18, 16, 11. Hate it.

I think that's possibly it - I have teenagers (including a boy) so totally get where this ad is coming from. Maybe the hysterical reactions to it are from those with younger kids who can't imagine what having teens is actually like?? Who knows - but yeah, I found it beautiful and not even remotely 'menacing' :)

I loved it.
Total slay
Am sat here in tears. Get it.
Kids 25 & 27

Yeah, mum of teen boys here too so resonates with me

Me too! I thought it was so well done.

Can posters try and stop referring to people with different opinions as ‘hysterical’ and other such names.

This is a thread about an advert not an excuse to set loose your inner mean girl.

I completely agree ! Brought tears to my eyes

I agree. I don’t find it menacing or threatening at all 🤷‍♀️
Relationships between teenagers and parents can be tricky and awkward and tense at times, I think the ad conveys that rather well.

What a load of badly acted, badly written load of shit this advert is. 😂

As a pp said, it comes across as an advert for Childline. The lad looks terrified of his own father. 😱

John Lewis haven't made a good Christmas ad for over a decade. They need to stop!

I really like it! And thought the message was pretty obviously about the relationship between Son and Dad needing no words.

Monty the Penguin is still my favourite though.

Exactly.

Oh I think it's brilliant. Totally get the connection/disconnect of the son and father in this - leaves so much open for interpretation but on a relationship level - I think it's very clever actually and not at all menacing - just full of emotion. Great song too!

Hi lighting the problems teens/families can have today (mental health issues)

Yeah, my 'kids' are aged 30-ish, and I am not 'hysterical' and neither is any other poster who dislikes this ad, and people ARE allowed different opinions to you!

Calling women hysterical is so misogynistic and demeaning. Give your head a wobble!

I think I’ve seen a different ad reading through these posts. I was alerted to it by a family member. It shows a young couple taking pics of eachother and later she’s elderly by his grave and there’s a fox and she dances with her husband’s ghost. It left me in bits! Now I’m wondering what I saw because the subject matter discussed here is something else entirely!

When the dad and son suddenly appear in the empty place - looked like a garage to me but I guess it was the dance floor - I was waiting for a voiceover to start reeling off some sort of abuse statistics. They both looked so stressed and unhappy, it didn't feel uplifting at all. Even worse than the cringey Grinch saying 'spenny' in the Asda advert IMO, at least that one gets more cheerful as it goes on.

And I have a 19 year old son.

There's a link in the OP's first post.

I think it is brilliant.

I’ve got teens and adult kids. They’re happy on Xmas day, not looking like they’re treading on eggshells around their dad. And if their dad has missed a present from one of them, they’d have said ‘dad, you’ve got to open this one’.

They all look so miserable and on edge. That doesn’t represent our house with teen kids and I feel sorry if the atmosphere and relationships are like that in anyone’s house at Christmas, or any other day of the year.

Oh, I don't mind, I'm not lumbered with miserable teen sons or a distant and grumpy husband, which is the lens through which this durge makes sense, apparently. I'll just have to live with my cheerful teen boys and husband and wonder what the fuck John Lewis are playing at instead.

Well apparently they do.
They have a record shop concession so I have learned from this thread.
(permanent or temporary I don't know).
It wouldn't have occurred to me to go to John Lewis for records to be honest.