John Lewis Christmas advert includes partnership with The Wildlife Trusts
Howard Lake | 10 November 2016 | News
John Lewis has unveiled its Christmas TV advert which this year includes a partnership with The Wildlife Trusts.
The advert features foxes, a badger, a squirrel, a hedghog and a dog enjoying bouncing on a garden trampoline, a Christmas present for the girl in the family, 10% of the sale of soft toys from the advert will be donated to the charity, “to allow us to inspire even more children to love British wildlife”. The Wildlife Trusts aim to use the funds donated by John Lewis to work within schools, including funding wildlife packs for schools, containing activity booklets, and ‘wildlife’ resources for teachers to use in lessons.
The charity details its partnership with the retailer on its website, including more information on the animals featured.
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Its communication officer Leanne Manchester explains in The Guardian how the John Lewis and Wildlife Trusts partnership came about.
WATCH: the John Lewis Christmas ad 2016
Variations on a theme
The John Lewis advert and its style were quickly mimicked. Joe.ie created a version that used the ad to tell the story of the results of the 2016 US Presidential election:
The Great North Snowdogs fundraising campaign for St Oswald’s Hospice also took up the theme in an amusing manner:
In another example, the Stop Funding Hate campaign attempted to ‘brandjack’ the advert as part of its campaign to urge advertisers to stop paying to advertise in newspapers that promoted “divisive hate campaigns” against immigrants and other minorities.
John Lewis Retail Partnership responded via Twitter:
Vaults, the band that played the music for the version of Randy Crawford’s Someday I’ll Fly Away used in the advert, have added their support to the StopFundingHate campaign. They have even promised to donate any funds that they receive from the John Lewis advert, together with money that is raised at an upcoming gig, to the ‘Help Refugees’ charity.
- John Lewis advert band donate their income to a refugee charity (26 November 2016)
- Has your charity mimicked the John Lewis Christmas advert this year? Did it work?
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.