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……

But what would the story of the ad be if they were all sat round the tree and happy teen says "Dad open this one you're going to love it!".

It's supposed to have a bit of emotional depth, be a bit bittersweet.

The strapline is "If you can't find the words, find the gift". The lack of communication, the awkwardness is the point.

Yes, we all get that. Normalising shit relationships between parents and teens, normalising men who can’t communicate isn't a good thing and just weird stereotyping…. But then it’s JL, they love to do that.

I really like it! Like the sentiment behind it.

In my view is the best one of their Christmas adds. I get it🤷‍♂️. It made me cry. It’s about connecting with your loved ones. Specially on Christmas ❤️

They're not normalising them, they're acknowledging that those relationships can be difficult, and offering a way through.

John Lewis announced an £88m loss for the first half of the year. This is a dreadful advert that speaks of strain and loss. Maybe they're saying goodbye?🤷

Yep, that's about right!

And the daughter/teen girl looks like Samara from The Ring. 😱

Honestly, the more you watch this ad, the worse it gets.

I hope they're saying goodbye, so we don't have to put up with any more of their dreadful Christmas ads!

Yes, don’t use your words men…. Because you’re men. 🙄

i thought it was quite touching

the discourse generates the publicity and that is the point

If people are not connecting with their children, they need to try harder every day of the year. And use their words.

I’ve heard that contrary to popular belief, having a penis doesn’t mean you can’t talk to your teens and be a good communicator. Shocker I know!

It’s just about how choosing a wise and thoughtful gift at Xmas can be really important. It can help with relationships especially if you’re maybe struggling woth a certain one. The fact the dad hasn’t found the gift and the boy hadn’t said anything was just to emphasise that their communication wasn’t great.
I agree that the darkness part was a bit heavy handed in how it was delivered.

Yeah, I just don't see it like that. I have slightly awkward teens; I can imagine if one of them had gone out on a limb and got me or their dad a non-standard present - there's an element of risk there, which a teen would feel acutely, or at least my teens and me when I was their age would have - then they'd be slightly nervous about giving that gift.

It's a love story, to me. I don't see eggshells, I don't see misery, I see a family clearing up after dinner, a present that was missed, a slightly awkward teen really hoping he'd got it right, and a dad blown away by such a thoughtful, beautiful and unexpected gesture.

I guess that's the joy of the human condition: we can see the same thing and interpret it completely differently. Doesn't make either of us right or wrong.

Nope. Dislike.
Fat woman wants to selfishly hog all the food and now doesn’t care if she gets home to her own family because she can eat (if she can climb far enough away from everyone else).
Partly tongue in cheek because I’m not actually that bothered - but that’s a more realistic presentation of what’s going on in that ad than all the ‘lazy violent man, scared teen’ angst is about the JL one.

Yep. My dad has and has always had a great relationship with me and my brother and my now 15-year-old teenager.

I clocked that as well... They don't! They probably do sell record players, but that wasn't the focus, the record/tune itself was.

I suspect they wanted to cash in/follow up on the success of the show 'Adolescence' that was on over the spring/summer, and concentrate on a father-son relationship.
The whole "raver" thing was silly. They'd have done better tackling it from a direction of maybe the son always has headphones on, listening to his tunes, and the dad can't get through to him/thinks the son is never listening. Then the son buys the dad some sort of music gadget they can enjoy together, or his own set of headphones.
Or perhaps the son is always blasting his music too loud, and the dad is getting fed up of shouting at the son... So the son buys him headphones?

Also, why was the sister looking so scared?!

Not their strongest advert ever.

That’s obviously great. Doesn’t make an ad about a way to start that dialogue if it’s drifted away (as we know it has for many men/boys) a bad message, does it?

I agree with you. It was wonderful.

They do sell vinyl. And will be selling this actual record for charity.
The daughter doesn’t look scared to me.

My teens would never feel awkward or nervous giving a gift. They are completely at ease with us, as they should be. They’re thoughtful people so if they felt we would love something, it would be special as they picked it out and they would know that was how we would feel about it.

We would feel like awful parents if our kids felt nervous around us for any reason.

As the parent of an anxious child, I liked it.

Also, you're all talking about it, and that is an end of advertising in itself.

Well, when JL is scratching their arse in January wondering how to keep the lights on they can always console themselves that they 'started a dialogue' on fathers drifting away from their sons in a very unfestive advert, that'll be reassuring to the employees.

I get the feeling it’s probably most liked by those whose teenagers don’t tell / show them they love them. I guess it makes you feel better to know that, secretly, deep down, they love you. I don’t recognise that as mine are open with emotions so the ad just seems weird and off kilter. Hence the different experience

So apparently Rough Trade (the vinyl selling concession) joined up with John Lewis in February of this year.
So they've been selling vinyl for the last 9 months.
But what about before?
I expect at one point in their long years of trading they sold "gramophones" as they used to be but obviously technology and popularity changes.
Could any John Lewis regulars tell me if vinyl was something sold regularly in the last few years?

No

HTH