John Lewis partners with Age UK for Christmas advert
Howard Lake | 6 November 2015 | News
This year’s Christmas TV advert from retailer John Lewis highlights the issue of loneliness experienced by many older people at Christmas. Created in partnership with Age UK, the advert shows how people can “show someone that they’re loved this Christmas”.
The advert, entitled ‘Man On The Moon’, features a young girl, Lily, who spots through her telescope a lonely man sitting on a bench on the moon. She aims to wish him a happy Christmas, and finally succeeds when she sends him up a gift on some balloons. This brings him to tears.
The soundtrack to the advert, which launched today on John Lewis’ social media channels and which will appear on TV from this weekend, is the Oasis song Half The World Away, sung by 19-year-old Norwegian artist Aurora.
The advert cost £1 million to produce, and it is being promoted by a £6 million media campaign.
John Lewis customer director Craig Inglis said:
“We hope it inspires people to find special gifts and – through our partnership with Age UK – raises the issue of loneliness among older people.”
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeA[/youtube]
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Fundraising
The advert does not mention Age UK and there is no call to give to support the charity.
Similarly there are no mentions of the charity partnership on John Lewis’ social channels, such as Instagram:
or on Pinterest, where last year the company featured a board about the Monty the Penguin campaign in partnership with WWF UK.
On John Lewis’ website, however, there is some more information about the partnership and a ‘donate now’ link, which takes you to the charity’s donation page.
John Lewis promotes its partnership with Age UK at Christmas
John Lewis’s website encourages donations to Age UK
Man on the Moon donation page on Age UK’s website
More fundraising?
The main emphasis of John Lewis seems to be in supporting Age UK’s ‘No one should have no one’ campaign by raising awareness of the issue of loneliness, especially at Christmas time.
But there are fundraising elements to the partnership. These include:
– Donating 25% of the retail price from the sale of every Man on the Moon mug and Christmas card
– Age UK is included in John Lewis’s Community Matters programme for the final part of the year
– Fundraising at John Lewis shops and John Lewis Head Office
– Age UK awareness days hosted in John Lewis shops
– Including text to donate message in all John Lewis shops and on www.johnlewis.com, with customers able to donate £5 by texting Moon to 70111
In addition, John Lewis has matched each of its shops with a local Age UK to fund activities such as lunch clubs and social events, for those who might otherwise spend the festive season alone.
Within an hour of the advert being posted to John Lewis’ Facebook page, it had been shared by over 21,370 people.
• More on last year’s Christmas ads and their charity connections.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.