3 reasons why I love John Lewis' magical Christmas advert The Gifting Hour
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00:00The John Lewis Christmas advert is here for 2024 and it's been well worth the wait.
00:07There's been a lot of anticipation for the gifting hour because it's come towards the middle of November so it's almost Advent season really.
00:14It's quite late compared to a few more recent efforts from John Lewis and it's given other companies a chance to show off their Christmas adverts not least.
00:26Like Waitrose, John Lewis's sister company, with a two part murder mystery, well not murder, like missing cake mystery.
00:36But John Lewis is back and it's proven why they're the king of Christmas adverts, at least here in the UK.
00:44So the gifting hour follows a woman who's going to a John Lewis shop to buy a last minute Christmas gift for her sister.
00:53And yeah it really touched me emotionally as someone who has a brother, like I've been there trying to secure a gift for my brother so maybe a bit more last minute.
01:03Now obviously it's probably a bit more online shopping than in person these days but still it's that.
01:10I've tried to find the perfect gift for him so yeah it touched me emotionally.
01:16And the three reasons I really loved it was one, it sort of has like a Narnia vibe, it captures that magic of Narnia.
01:23I remember going with my brother and my family to see the Narnia movie when it came out in the 2000s, sort of after the first Harry Potter movie and the Lord of the Rings movies.
01:34And yeah where they climb through the wardrobe, she climbs through a coat rack, well a clothes rack sorry, and comes out of a wardrobe and goes through the magic of passing through her memories as she looks for the perfect gift.
01:48And yeah then it captures, number two, it captures that manic energy of Christmas shopping.
01:56Like obviously it's not the same these days but when I was growing up we had a tradition where you would go with my mum, my dad, my brother, we'd go to town sort of the last week before Christmas.
02:08And yeah we'd split off into pairs and go off and buy Christmas shopping and then swap the pairs around after a certain amount of time and shop for the other people.
02:20And I always remember there was some sort of wildness in people's eyes when they were in the shops, like a sort of mad panic in a nice way, like a vibrant mad panic.
02:31And this sort of captures that vibe with the woman, she's got a few minutes before the shop goes, she's trying to think of a gift and yeah it felt relatable which I think makes the advert really stand out.
02:45And then three, it captures nostalgia in a really good way. Like obviously nostalgia can be a bit of a crutch to lean on but it's a non-specific nostalgia, it's like the nostalgia of having grown up with a sibling which many people will be able to experience.
03:04Yeah it's probably my favourite John Lewis Christmas advert since Monty the Penguin. I may not have to sit with it a bit longer but it's definitely one of the top ones they've done in recent years.