ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!
*

John Lewis Christmas spot fuels fire for Waitrose merger

Published by

John Lewis has finally launched its Christmas ad for 2019, which tells the story of a little girl and her excitable dragon, Edgar, and unites the brand with partner company Waitrose.

The spot, created by adam&eveDDB and directed by Dougal Wilson, is the first festive campaign that sees John Lewis actively promote its association with Waitrose at Christmas ahead of a restructure that will see the pair merge in February 2020.

The retailer has made an effort to include Waitrose in all its communications announcing the ad and Waitrose unveiled the work at the same time across its own channels ahead of the merger that will see them known as 'The Future Partnership'.

In September 2018, the pair rebranded to include '& Partners' in their names and launched their first joint campaign that saw a school play take place to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Now, a restructure announced last month will see the two brands merge from February 2020, in an effort to make cost savings of £100m and fight back against the declining returns of the retail space.

The ad itself, produced by Blink and teased alongside the hashtag #EcitableEdgar this week, sees a dragon cause havoc in a local community with his excitable fire breathing. He then redeems himself by lighting the Christmas pudding for the town on Christmas Day.

No doubt there will be a slew of memes to follow on social media as more people offer their reaction to the ad, which in previous years has been the highlight of the festive spots from big brands.

John Lewis & Partners wasted no time in adding an Edgar range to its online store for excitable fans with a cuddly dragon available in the UK for £15 and the £8 Christmas pudding that features in the film among the products.

See all the other Christmas spots in our full round-up of festive ads of 2019.

 

 

Comments

More Leaders

*

Leaders

Inspiring Female Leaders: An Interview with RAPP CEO Gabrielle Ludzker

Gabrielle Ludzker is not just any CEO. The current head honcho at customer experience agency RAPP has spent her career breaking away from the traditional corporate CEO stereotype. and leads to inspire rule breakers. Gabby is an inspirational rule...

Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!