Man on the Moon – John Lewis’ Christmas advert 2015

The retailers annual advert launched this morning (Friday) on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube with the hashtag #OnTheMoon, before its television debut during Channel 4’s Goggle Box this evening.

The competition between retailers at Christmas has become more fierce than the festive TV schedule itself!

Leaving aside the warm fuzzy feeling you get from the advert, and onto the important stuff: the retailer spent £7 million on its Christmas campaign which includes the emotive TV ad, a smartphone game and areas created to look like the surface of the moon in 11 stores.

2011: The advert that first made John Lewis’ Christmas advertising famous follows a young boy as he waits with much frustration for Christmas to come round, seemingly so that he can unwrap his presents.

The tear-jerker is set to a cover of Oasis’ Half The World Away, performed by 19-year-old Norwegian artist Aurora, and ends with the strapline “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas”.

Desperate to connect with the man she spies through a telescope, she sends him a vintage spyglass tied to a bunch of balloons.

This year John Lewis has partnered with charity Age United Kingdom, encouraging people to donate and also selling Christmas merchandise, which will see a few proceeds donated to the charitable organisation.

Craig Inglis, Customer Director at John Lewis said “Our Christmas advert is once again all about going the extra mile to give someone the flawless gift”.

The heartwarming two-minute clip, dubbed the most anticipated ad of the year, tells the story of a little girl who tries to contact a man who lives on the Moon and is forced to spend each Christmas alone.

The app also offers a daily Moon cycle calendar with educational facts told by the man on the moon himself, an augmented reality experience, which lets you take photos next to a 3D moon.

This year’s advert is all about a man on the moon.

The £1 million production, filmed mostly in Warner Brothers studios in Hertfordshire, is called “Man on the Moon”.