Market dominators for Christmas adverts in the past ten years have always put John Lewis, deservingly so, on the highest pedestal for their tear-jerking performances and storylines. But they’ve put a spin on it this year, and the reaction has been interesting. 

In short, the advert follows the storyline of a young boy who plants a Venus fly trap, and they become best friends. Except the Venus fly trap tries to eat the family’s dog, so it gets banished to live outside in the cold. With the Venus fly trap being removed from the Christmas celebrations, when the day eventually comes around, the family feel bad, so they bring the plant some presents to share. In the ending scene, the audience witnesses this beastly creature eat the family’s presents, then regurgitate them back up and spit them back out at the family. Absolutely bonkers, right? 

As a creative marketing agency, CuCo Creative may not be the biggest fan of this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert off first look. Still, being skilled in advertising, we can appreciate the master of the creativity and skill to create such an advertisement. At CuCo Creative, maybe our creatives are more in favour of the heartwarming ads rather than a horrifying and deadly Venus Fly Trap that vomits out Christmas presents – but that’s just CuCo’s personal preference!

Overall, while it may not be the top-ranked Christmas advert of 2023, elements of the advert still make it a John Lewis classic. Whilst this advert doesn’t grab you in an emotional chokehold, there is still a defining sentiment to its storyline. This year, John Lewis celebrates the theme of family and evolving traditions. Finding joy and happiness with any loved ones is what the ‘perfect’ Christmas is about, whatever your traditions are. 

Moving away from the obvious sweet and comforting storyline to this wacky masterpiece means the press has certainly gone crazy for it! Compared to Twitter’s usual chain of consumers watering their phones with tears after writing about how emotional and touched they are, the feed is filled more with questions. Like, “What have I just watched?” So, the conversations surrounding this year’s ad are huge and definitely something to give credit to for effectiveness! 

At first glance, maybe the Christmas advert isn’t CuCo Creative’s favourite, BUT after reviewing, our marketing agency is definitely warming to it! We are glad to see something more refreshing from the brand and hope for more diverse adverts like these in the future! 

Maybe we’re not Saatchi and Saatchi, but as a creative design agency, we can certainly help with any of your advertisement enquiries, so don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to bring to life any of your wacky and wonderful marketing ideas across any print, digital, or packaging design.