John Lewis teases its latest Christmas advert

It’s the moment many festive shoppers have been waiting for; John Lewis has finally teased it’s annual Christmas advert for 2023.

The high street giant shared a very short trailer – ten seconds in total and featuring just five words – this morning across its social media platforms, offering a tantalising glimpse of what the brand’s latest yuletide advert has in store.

Many of John Lewis’ rivals – including M&S, TK Maxx and Very – have already unleashed their full adverts…but the high street giant, known for its glossy big budget productions, often with celebrity-sung soundtracks, is clearly sticking with its ‘anticipation is everything’ manta. 

Using the hashtag #traditiongrows, today’s ad teaser – showing a young boy shopping with his grandmother – ends with the brand’s familiar racing green colours and the apparent release date of the full advert: November 9th – meaning eager fans have just a couple of days to wait until they can watch the full commercial. 

Today’s teaser from the retail chain looks to put nostalgia at the fore, as the youngster and his gran are seen shopping at a vintage-style antiques market.

The sandy-haired boy, dressed in cosy blue knitwear and a snuggly lumberjack shirt, is seen browsing items – before spotting a retro-style box. 

The cardboard box has the words ‘Grow your own perfect Christmas tree’ written on it and the boy looks over his right shoulder and says the trailer’s only lines: ‘Gran, can I have this?’ 

Back at home, he then opens it up – to find a single tree seed inside the box, which is labelled ‘fast growing’. 

There were no real hints on if a big-name singer will be crooning on the ad either, with just a few bars of piano music heard in the background. 

On social media, fans had already been desperate for the brand to put itself in the running for this year’s best Christmas advert, penning on X that they were ‘excited’ for the apparent full airing on Thursday. 

One wrote: ‘It’s coming!’ while another added: ‘Love it. It’s going to be a good one!’

However, another said the boy should have been more polite in his request to his grandmother, saying: ‘Can you redo this ad please (!) with “please” so we can remind people about the importance of good manners.’ 

John Lewis has left it a little later to offer up this year’s yuletide delight, with many of its rivals already unleashing their offerings.

Since 2014, the brand’s iconic Christmas ad has been released during the first two weeks of November. Usually, the commercial hits screens on a Thursday or Friday. 

In 2022, the advert titled ‘The Beginner’, following a helpless foster father trying to skateboard, was shared on November 10th, at 8pm.

The email read: ‘The anticipation is growing… Our new Christmas ad is almost here. Become a My John Lewis member and download our app by 31 October to watch it first on launch day.’  

Last week, some lucky John Lewis customers said they’d received an email saying the advert was ‘almost here’. 

Many brands – including Very, M&S Food, TK Maxx and Lidl have already shared their festive productions, following in the footsteps of Baileys, Waitrose, Asda, Argos and Sports Direct.

For M&S, Dawn French got the call up once again to star as the food fairy in their 2023 edition. In one of the more starry ads of the year so far, she is joined by none other than Hollywood elite and Wrexham football club co-chairmen, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

But not all of this years ads have gone down the celebrity route.

Very’s festive advert, Let’s Make It Sparkle, features a glamorous group of pink cartoon flamingoes on a Christmas shopping trip.

Meanwhile, supermarket chain Lidl is gearing up to go head to head with John Lewis to be crowned ‘most heart-warming’ this year, with an appropriately cost-of-living themed advert. 

The production, which follows a generous racoon who sets out to make a little boys Christmas as special as possible, aims to remind viewers about the power of small gestures.