This may or may not be the best ad of the week – Emma Hall called it a “bit of a jumble of words and images” – but it’s certainly an important one for John Lewis as it tries to get on the front foot under new chairman Jason Tarry from Tesco after Sharon White’s hair shirt regime.
One of three it’s planning this Christmas as it exhumes its venerable ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ mantra. ‘Live Knowingly’ is the campaign theme, which is a bit earth-bound.
So we get a lot of fashion and some history.
Advertising worked its magic on John Lewis in the adam&eve days but the mutual has struggled through the cost of living crisis and at the hands of renascent rival M&S.
Now it needs a blockbuster at Christmas to get firmly back on track.
