By Karim Hammam
John Lewis has launched its 20th Christmas advertisement, starring Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as grandmother Gloria and featuring a soundtrack by Sam Fender. The campaign carries the tagline “Don’t give up on giving” and debuted on the retailer’s social media channels on November 3.
In the advert, Gloria hosts her family on Christmas Eve but struggles to engage her bored grandchildren, Freddie and Maggie. She retrieves a vintage wooden pull-along dog named Pickles, voiced by Paul Whitehouse, which comes to life and challenges her to put more effort into gift-giving.
Pickles leads Gloria on a gift-finding journey through London by tuk-tuk to a John Lewis store. On Christmas morning, the grandchildren discover their cards contain no cash but a key to Gloria’s transformed study, now a “Gran Cave” with disco lights and a turntable for dancing together.
The soundtrack is Fender’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” recorded with a children’s choir from his former school, John Spence Community High School, and a brass section from Easington Colliery Band. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger praised Fender’s rendition.
Proceeds from sales of the track, backed with Fender’s 2020 recording “Winter Song,” will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust, chosen by Fender, and Action for Children, John Lewis’s partner for its Building Happier Futures initiative.
Rosie Hanley, marketing and loyalty director at John Lewis, said the storyline reflects customers’ gift-giving anxieties and aims to restore confidence in thoughtful presents. The advert will air on ITV and Channel 4 between 8pm and 9.15pm following its social media premiere.
