John Lewis | Man On The Moon | 2015
Why does this tug at the heartstrings so much? / John Lewis "Man On The Moon"
The yearly John Lewis Christmas ad. Just the fact that it's something to look forward to as the weather turns cold already makes it a winner, but the way it consistently exceeds expectations feels almost miraculous.
The problem
John Lewis's Christmas ads started in 2007 and have become an annual event in the UK that signals "Christmas has arrived." This 2015 film was a campaign worth about £7 million (roughly 700 million yen), made in partnership with the charity Age UK to shine a light on the social issue of loneliness among the elderly. It was the first John Lewis ad to tell a story about connecting with someone outside the circle of family and friends. When it launched, some called it "too sad," but it also caused a huge stir, with the hashtag #manonthemoon used 39,500 times within three hours of release.
The insight
At the heart of this ad is the power of connection and the idea of caring for others at Christmas. It looks squarely at the dual nature of the season: a time of great joy, but also a time when some people find themselves alone. The tagline "Show someone they're loved this Christmas" echoes Age UK's own message, "No one should have no one at Christmas." The ad wraps a hard truth—that there are 1 million elderly people in the UK who go a month without speaking to a friend, neighbor, or family member—in a fantasy. The idea of using a gift to bridge that loneliness is a remarkably gentle one.
The idea
A young girl named Lily looks at the moon through her telescope at home and spots an old man living there alone. Realizing he's lonely, she decides to send him a gift. Lily keeps watching over the old man's daily life on the moon, and at Christmas she sends him a telescope as a present, letting him know that someone on Earth is watching over him too. The film was made by adam&eveDDB and directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch—the first time a John Lewis Christmas ad was directed by a woman. The music is a cover of Oasis's "Half The World Away," sung by Norwegian singer Aurora, who was 19 at the time. Multiple outlets reported that no matter how prepared people thought they were, the ad always managed to bring them to tears by the end.
What happened
The ad went online at 8am on November 6, 2015, and aired on TV that same night. Two 120-second versions were broadcast, followed by shorter cuts running for six weeks afterward. John Lewis set up "moon pop-ups" in 11 stores where people could learn about the moon and about Age UK. An AR app was also developed: pointing a smartphone at the moon image on posters and shopping bags revealed a new animation or fact each day. Aurora's performance was mentioned online 7,315 times within an hour of release. Thanks to her cover, the original Oasis version also climbed back up to number 56 on the UK charts.
Afterthought
It's an ordinary, straightforwardly good story—so why does it hit so hard? Maybe it's the music ("Half the World Away"). Maybe it's the frame of a child and an old man. Maybe it's outer space, the moon. Or, probably, all of it together. Looking at it again, yes—it really is all of it. It's a great example of just how much you can do within the format of a TV ad. Even with the "cause" of partnering with Age UK behind it, the film never turns preachy, and the strength it takes to make it work purely as fantasy is remarkable. Using a gift to say "you're not alone" is classic Christmas-ad territory, but setting it on the moon gives it a kind of universality. The fact that you want to watch it again every year as the weather turns cold—that alone makes it a winner.
