'Tis the season as they say, and you know that things are truly underway when you see your first Christmas ad.
First out of the blocks this year is John Lewis with an ad that tells the story of a young boy and his friend, Monty. Did we mention that Monty is a penguin? Well we have now.
Set to a soundtrack of John Lennon's 'Real Love', the short film (which is what it really is, in all fairness) shows that he and Monty do everything together, but that penguin is very lonely and doesn't have a friend...until Christmas morning.
We know this is all marketing and just a gimmick, but we were rooting for Monty. The ad reportedly cost nearly £1 million (computer animated penguins don't come cheap, obviously) but John Lewis are hoping that it will have a similar effect to last year's ad which they credit with a 6.9% boost in sales, according to The Independent. Monty has a lot of responsibility on his tiny penguin shoulders, then.
