John Lewis launches 'Unexpected Guest' Christmas campaign

John Lewis has unveiled its 2021 Christmas advertising campaign, entitled ‘Unexpected Guest’, joining a host of other retailers who have also released Christmas adverts today.

The advert focuses on the story of friendship and celebrating the magic of Christmas moments experienced for the first time. This year, John Lewis takes viewers on a magical Christmas journey through the eyes of a young boy called Nathan and a space traveller, Skye.

Nathan discovers and befriends Skye, who has landed in the woods beside his home. Their friendship develops as Nathan introduces Skye to many of his family’s festive traditions and brings them to life for her in the woods.

This year’s soundtrack to the advert is performed by Lola Young, a 20 year old singer-songwriter from South London. The track ‘Together in Electric Dreams’, originally released by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder in 1984.

The advert will first air on TV this evening at 8.15pm on ITV, in a special premiere during The Pride of Britain Awards.

Claire Pointon, John Lewis Director of Customer, said: “There is nothing more magical than discovering the joy of Christmas for the first time and enjoying your favourite festive moments with loved ones. After the last 18 months, we wanted our advert to really celebrate this as we look forward to a brighter future. We know our customers are excited for this festive season more than ever, as they reconnect with family and friends. Through the story of Skye and Nathan we celebrate friendship and are reminded of the joy of experiencing Christmas for the first time.”

This year, the story of John Lewis's advert will be brought to life for customers in ten Christmas Emporiums, where they will be able to get up close to props from the advert and create and share an interactive gif to share on social media.

There will also be two Snapchat lenses available today - the first is a selfie lens, which lets you become a space-traveller like Skye and the second is an outward facing lens, which lets the users play with Skye’s spaceship in their very own world.

A version of the characters Christmas jumper that he gifts to the alien will be available in John Lewis stores and online in mens, womens and childrens sizes (priced between £14-£29). John Lewis will donate 10% of the profits for each jumper sold equally to charities FareShare and Home-Start UK.