On Saturday, a Christmas tradition commenced—the airing of the annual John Lewis Christmas advert.
On Saturday, a Christmas tradition commenced—the airing of the annual John Lewis Christmas advert.
The animated ad, portraying a hare who is trying to convince his friend the bear about the meaning of Christmas and featuring Lily Allen covering Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know, got a lot of reaction on social media after airing during the advert break on The X Factor.
As viewers tweeted their feedback for the advert, they tagged the handle @johnlewis, thinking it was the retailer. Instead, the tweets had been going to John Lewis, who resides in the American state of Virginia. (This article from BuzzFeed says he’s a computer science professor at Virginia Tech.)
Lewis has arguably been very patient throughout the stream of tweets that have come through, responding to each one without anger or frustration.
@ChrisPhilpot You’re a suckler for sap. I bet you DID cry. And perhaps you were referring to the retail store. @johnlewisretail
— John Lewis (@johnlewis) November 8, 2013
@ClaireWattSmith My beauty is never a mistake. Of course, you may have been referring to the retail store. @johnlewisretail
— John Lewis (@johnlewis) November 2, 2013
The BuzzFeed article notes he has been dealing with the stream of tweets for longer than 3 months.
Then, on Sunday, the retail store tweeted their appreciation to him. The store is sending him something in the post.
Hi @johnlewis – thanks so much for all your efforts directing people to us. We’d love to send you a gift. Please can you DM us your address?
— John Lewis (@johnlewisretail) November 10, 2013
Sian Grieve, a spokeswoman for John Lewis (the retailer), said Lewis was a good sport. “We’re grateful @johnlewis has got such a good sense of humour, and we’ve been in touch with him via Twitter to thank him for directing posts to us,” Grieve said.
It’s a win-win not only for John Lewis the retailer, but also, John Lewis himself.
Image: Mankind 2k / Wikimedia Commons
