Christmas Advertising – A Look at John Lewis #BusterTheBoxer
John Lewis Christmas Advertising – Buster the Dog
In recent years, John Lewis’ Christmas advertising has become synonymous with the countdown to Christmas. This year was no different, although the high street retailer made a bold departure from its usual weepy emotional advertising to a more fun and action-oriented ad called ‘Buster the Boxer’.
Eye-tracking video example with John Lewis’ Buster the Boxer TV advertising
John Lewis – Buster the Dog Plot
This year’s advert tells the story of a little girl called Bridget. Her parents bought her a trampoline and set it in the garden on Christmas Eve. But as darkness falls, animals emerge from the garden, including foxes, a badger, a squirrel, and a hedgehog, who discover the trampoline. Meanwhile, Bridget’s boxer dog, Buster, looks on enviously as the animals have fun on the trampoline.
The surprise moment, though, is on Christmas morning, as Bridget excitedly runs out into the garden to discover her gift, but Buster beats her to it and excitedly bounces on her trampoline while the family look on in disbelief.
Using our AdProbe advertising pre-testing method, we conducted a monadic test for each execution via an online survey among target-market shoppers.
Our research method also incorporated eye-tracking technology to measure emotional responses to the advert in real time.
Our findings:
We also conducted a survey among members of the public using our AdProbe advertising evaluation research tool. This showed that Buster the Boxer was as strong, if not stronger, than in previous years.
For the last 5 years, John Lewis’ Christmas advertising has consistently delivered high impact and attention-grabbing qualities. However, these adverts are strongest in terms of being original and different compared with those of the last few years.
Music always plays an important part in their advertising, and this year was no different. Previous executions all included acoustic covers of ballads by Ellie Goulding, Gabrielle Aplin, Tom Odell and Aurora – and this year includes the jazz hit ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’ originally made famous by American singer Randy Crawford. The music was again very well received and achieved levels similar to those of the Monty The Penguin advert featuring Tom O’Dell.
We could really be a nation of dog lovers, as this year’s Buster the Dog advert recorded the highest level of Buzz for any John Lewis advert we’ve tested, suggesting that people will talk about it and help promote it, which is known to be an important part of overall advertising effectiveness.
What This Tells Brands
Emotion + Entertainment = Memorability
The advert successfully blends emotional warmth with light humour, making it both heartwarming and entertaining. This balance increases:
- Attention
- Recall
- Shareability
The success of Buster the Boxer highlights a few critical principles:
- Keep it simple: One strong idea beats multiple competing messages
- Find a human truth: Tap into emotions people instantly recognise
- Be distinctive: A fresh angle can elevate a familiar story
- Entertain as well as inform: Engagement drives effectiveness
- Prioritise emotional clarity: Make people feel something specific
The best Christmas Advert from John Lewis?
Well, according to our metrics, these indicate that Buster is the most effective to date – unfortunately, last year’s #ManOnTheMoon was the weakest! (Which might explain why this year John Lewis reverted to Dougal Wilson, who was behind ‘Monty the Penguin’ and two others?).
- Also check out the Unexpected guest
Latest News
Keep up to date with the latest news from Vision One
