John Lewis readies Excitable Edgar for Christmas – will there be a hospital scene too?

OK, it’s coming on Thursday (November 14) and features ‘Excitable Edgar,’ something to do with a door knocker.

The John Lewis Christmas ad, that is.

Meet Edgar. 14.11.19 #ExcitableEdgar pic.twitter.com/4H9YRCDMZJ

— Excitable Edgar (@ExcitableEdgar) November 11, 2019

The Liverpool Echo reckons there’ll be a children’s hospital scene too, tear ducts at the ready.

This will be the first big number from JL without the full-time labours of adam&eveDDB founders James Murphy and David Golding, off to set up a new agency next year, although they were in at its inception and for the first few months (take a while these things.) So it will be seen as significant for the new A&E.

This year’s UK Christmas ads started with a bang – Argos, Amazon and Walkers in particular – but have tailed off a bit. Which is no doubt how JL and A&E like it. Everything is finessed to the ultimate degree, like the Twitter ‘leak’ (whether it’s a red herring or not) but the danger is that someone will come out with the ad everyone talks about first.

We reckon the ad will feature Waitrose as well as its big brother, which makes life harder for the agency. But will save the John Lewis Partnership a shedload of money and, maybe, sprinkle some stardust on Waitrose too.