Aliens vs. Animals: Man’s best friend wins UK hearts in John Lewis Christmas ads

Throughout a decade of John Lewis Christmas adverts, four-legged friends come out on top for UK social media users

The John Lewis Christmas advert is arguably the most hotly anticipated retail ad of the festive season in the UK, dividing opinions and drawing comparisons with previous years. Social media management and social listening expert, Hootsuite, has delved into the past 11 years of John Lewis Christmas adverts, analysing the Twitterverse to see what the UK really thinks.

‘Buster the Boxer’ knocks out the competition

The 2016 advert featuring Buster the Boxer watching on in envy as foxes, badgers and other wildlife bounced on brand new trampoline brought a huge amount of joy and laughter to viewers, especially when he eventually got to have a bounce himself, ahead of his humans. Examples of the conversation on social include these Trump/Hilary Clinton parody, Time magazine, and Mashable tweets.

Buster the Boxer gained more traction on Twitter than any other John Lewis advert in the 11-year period from 11 October 2011 – 8 December 2021, earning 61,971 mentions, with a higher proportion of those mentions being positive rather than negative.

Buster the Boxer was also the only year where male mentions outweighed female mentions.

Buster the Boxer left this year’s John Lewis advert, An Unexpected Guest, in the dust, with nearly ten times as many mentions on social media, and significantly more positive mentions.

Cute and cuddly animals mean more positivity

Through its social listening tool, Hootsuite also tracked sentiment on social media posts over the years. Positive sentiment peaked for 2014’s Monty the Penguin ad, in which a penguin looking for love gets his wish at Christmas, capturing the nation’s hearts (Examples include: Crying from cute and sad, Awww cute, Blubbering into corn flakes).

The Bear and the Hare (2013) and Excitable Edgar (2019) came in at a close second and third in positive sentiment. The data suggests where there is an animal playing the central protagonist, the reception is significantly more positive and well received. The audience seems to react more lovingly when there is a Christmas-only theme that is brought to life through cute and cuddly creatures rather than another agenda being weaved into the story.

Following 2016’s Brexit vote and the US election of Donald Trump, many even called on the John Lewis advert to save 2016 (Save 2016, Brexit reference, 2016 commentary, World needs John Lewis advert).

Brings a tear to the eye

In terms of emotion, 48% of all mentions showed signs of sadness, while 42% showed signs of joy. The mentions of sadness were mainly the audience showing how emotional the ads made them feel, rather than them being sad themselves (Gets me every time, Shed a tear). Two crying emojis were also amongst the top emojis used in mentions about the ads, coming in just after a Christmas tree and a wrapped present.

2015’s Man on the Moon drove the greatest number of sad mentions as a young girl tried to capture the attention of a lonely old man who lived on the moon. This was also accompanied by a cover of Oasis’ Half the World Away which also brought home the tears (So many tears, Crying emoji, Yes it made me cry).

Keep it simple

With the addition of political elements being woven into the ads in recent years, some feel that the ads should just be about Christmas rather than another agenda.

2016 was a peak for John Lewis ads. Leading up to 2016, the adverts gained more and more traction until Buster the Boxer, after which the following five iterations received far fewer mentions. Are viewers growing tired of the John Lewis ads? According to Wikipedia, Buster the Boxer cost £6 million less than the previous year, and The Boy and the Piano, which received a third of Buster the Boxer’s mentions, is rumoured to have cost £5 million alone in fees for Elton John – showing that it isn’t all about the biggest names or budgets.