A message for the season

 UK retailer John Lewis is known for its annual holiday ads. Those ads boast somewhat of a cult following in their home country – and in advertising circles, for that matter.

This year’s ad is especially touching.  [Spoiler Alert]. It features a middle-aged man trying, and mostly failing, to pick up skateboarding. It isn’t clear why until the very end, when he and his wife open their door – and there stands a woman holding a folder accompanied by a nervous girl with a skateboard. They welcome the girl in, the guy says something awkward about his own attempts to learn how to skate, and the ad concludes with a note about John Lewis’ efforts to help the more than 100,000 kids in the UK care system.

An ad exec on Twitter, Ben Philips, explains why the skateboarding theme, specifically, is such an effective backdrop. The skate community is a tight one and a welcoming one.  Also, recent years have seen a boom in skateboarding among women and older people.  Moreover, there is something touching about seeing this guy try something so difficult just to create a bond with the girl he is taking into his home.

Feel-good ads about “purpose” generally don’t work that well, although there are exceptions. Maybe this is an exception, maybe not. If nothing else, the ad reinforces John Lewis’ reputation as the brand that always offers a warm message that makes the holiday season a little brighter.