The John Lewis 2014 Christmas commercial continues the theme of ‘thoughtful gifting’ by evoking the magic of make-believe at Christmas, as seen through a child’s eyes. Set to the track 'Real Love', the ad tells the tale of an unlikely friendship between a little boy, Sam, and his penguin best friend, Monty.
Creative Execution
To a big, uplifting, famous track…
This advert will tell the story of a little boy and his beloved pet.
The boy is about 7 years old and is called Sam.
His pet is called Monty.
Monty also happens to be a penguin.
A real, fuzzy and waddling, cute as you like, little gentoo penguin.
And just like millions of little boys and their pets the world over, Sam and Monty are the best of friends and pretty much inseparable.
They hang out together in Sam’s bedroom, where they watch animated movies on the TV; and in the wooden tree-house in the garden, where they spy on the neighbours; and in the park, where they like to go paddling in the big pond.
They play games together, things like chase and hide and seek or even just seeing who can best dodge the water sprinklers in the back garden.
They eat together, Sam discreetly handing bits of his dinner to a grateful Monty when Mum’s back is turned.
And of course, they sleep together, Monty huddling into a little ball of black and white fluff at the bottom of Sam’s bunk bed every night.
They’ve even devised a special, secret, ‘Sam and Monty hand and flipper shake’ that only they know how to do.
It really is the perfect friendship.
But as the ad develops, and winter starts to set in and Christmas looms, we notice that Monty is starting to look a little sad at times.
Such as when they are watching an old rom-com on TV, and the hero picks up the girl and kisses her at long last and everyone in the film cheers, but rather than be happy for them, Monty seems to slump a bit.
Or when they drive past a young couple cuddling each other at a bus stop and Monty just stares at them forlornly through the window.
Or when they go skating in the park and two little ducks waddle past them on the ice, which makes Monty’s whole body sag.
It appears that Monty, bless him, wants a mate.
Being his best friend in the entire world, Sam always picks up on Monty’s vibes.
Soon, it's Christmas morning and little Sam excitedly jumps out of bed and wakes up a snoozing Monty.
He's got a present for his beloved penguin and he can't wait to give it to him.
Cupping his hands over Monty’s eyes, he carefully leads him downstairs to the lounge.
Once inside the lounge he leads him towards the big, sparkly tree and the piles of colourfully wrapped presents in the corner of the room.
And then, slowly, Sam takes his hands away from Monty’s eyes and we pull out of the scene a little to reveal that stood by the tree is another penguin.
An equally cute, equally fluffy, equally real little girl penguin, a big pink and gold gift ribbon wrapped around her little head.
She flashes a penguin smile at Monty, whose eyes eyes widen as he looks over at Sam, a tear of happiness welling up in his eyes.
As Monty excitedly waddles over to meet his new mate, his little flippers flapping wildly, the door to the room opens behind us and Sam’s mum walks in.
And as we switch to mum’s POV, we see little Sam stood next to the Christmas tree holding aloft two fluffy toy penguins, one old and a bit grubby, the other brand, spanking new and with a big pink and gold ribbon around it's head.
And then we fade to white as some words appear on the screen that read:
Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of.