John Lewis launches Christmas ad with focus on children in care

John Lewis’s Christmas ad launched today, with a focus on children in care and with sales of some of the items featured in it benefitting Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland.

In a departure from the norm for retailers’ Christmas ads, John Lewis has said that this year’s ad focuses less on the buying side of Christmas and more on kindness.

Entitled The Beginner, it shows a middle-aged man at Christmas time teaching himself to skateboard – not because he’s having a midlife crisis, but because, as we find out at the end, he and his wife are about to foster a teenage girl who loves skateboarding.

John Lewis’s Christmas ad was put together with specialist advice from Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland and is intended to raise awareness of those living in and leaving care over Christmas. The end of the ad highlights that 108,000 children are in the care system in the UK and John Lewis’s commitment to support the futures of young people who have been part of it.

It follows on from John Lewis’s parent company’s £1.5mn Building Happier Futures initiative launched earlier this year to help care experienced young people with training and employment. The company has said it wants to be the “employer of choice” for those leaving care.

A quarter of the value of sales of a special toy bear and other products, including a skateboard as shown in the ad, will go to charities Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland.

John Lewis stores will also have “giving trees” where shoppers can pick up a bauble which enables them to donate £5 to £15 to the causes at the till.

About Melanie MayMelanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.