Everybody looks forward to adam&eveDDB’s blockbuster Christmas ad for John Lewis and its mid-season effort usually causes a stir too – last year there was a “trans” row one recalls. This year’s comes out on Thursday.
With a new line: “For all life’s moments,” which replaces the finally-consigned-to-history “Never knowingly undersold.”
Other contenders included John Lewis: Life is beautiful, John Lewis: Life well loved, John Lewis: For every moment and John Lewis: For the love of life – all of which the retailer trademarked it seems although it couldn’t for John Lewis: For all life’s moments. How you can trademark such everyday phrases only a lawyer could tell you. Madness, some press releases we get have so many TMs in them they look like Morse code.
JL customer director Claire Pointon says: “I’m very eager as a marketing leader to make sure we’re not just talking to people who already love our brand, to make sure we’re talking to people who don’t consider us today..(so they do) consider us.”
Of the upcoming ad she says: “We’ve researched this ad probably the most out of any ad we’ve ever done, both pre-filming and post-filming, with our agency. We want it to represent the positioning – ‘for all life’s moments’.”
No pressure there then. Sure A&E CCO Richard Brim and his team will rise to the occasion.
PS John Lewis is clearly trying hard to be more customer-friendly and then it goes and switches credit card supplier to discover many of its customers have had their credit limit slashed to zero. Does one part of any big organisation ever talk to the other bits?
Yet another triumph for customer experience… maybe it’s the curse of WFH.