It's not easy making a lighthearted commercial to cap off 2016.
Not with Brexit and President-elect Trump leaving a path of scorched earth behind them—or more to the point, ahead of them—and putting lots of consumers in the grimmest of moods this holiday. How do you find joy after such an annus horribilis?
For John Lewis, the retailer that's become the standard bearer of holiday cheer in Britain—and helped turn Christmas into an advertising showcase, the U.K.'s Super Bowl—the task has fallen to a dog. He's a boxer named Buster, and he just wants to jump.
Yes, the retailer's much-awaited two-minute 2016 Christmas commercial, created by London agency adam&eveDDB, broke early Thursday. Check it out here:
Let's agree, first off, that this is one brilliantly crafted spot.
Dougal Wilson, who's directed a lot of the John Lewis Christmas ads (including the two best ones—2011's groundbreaking "The Long Wait" and 2014's world-beating "Monty's Christmas"), creates a lovely, enchanting world. The lighting is gorgeous. The animals are charming and believable. It's perfectly paced, and admirably cast.
The song—a cover of "One Day I'll Fly Away" by the British band Vaults—probably won't hit the top of the charts, but it sets the elevated mood well enough.
And yet, even in its early hours online, the ad has its detractors.
Some parents are upset that it shows Dad setting up the trampoline, complaining that this suggests to kids that Santa Claus isn't real. This is an understandable concern, though John Lewis has shrugged off this criticism, saying: "We're sure Father Christmas has also visited Bridget and Buster the night before. This is just an extra special gift from her parents because she loves to bounce."
Then there are more outlandish critiques, including a Guardian columnist who suggested the ad is a failure because it feels like an allegory for Trump and Clinton—with an animal pushing his way in and getting to jump on the trampoline instead of the heroine. (This is an amusing reading, if nothing else, though the writer admits: "Perhaps I'm reading too much into this.")
On the other hand, the spot has plenty of enthusiastic supporters who are thanking the retailer for crafting a simple, fun, uplifting story that brings a smile and a laugh—things that have been in short supply lately. 
In the end, the mixed reviews aren't surprising. The spot is well intentioned (the larger campaign will benefit The Wildlife Trusts), beautifully made and does bring some welcome levity. And it's smart to try some comedy after last year's somber "Man on the Moon" campaign—which, while also well crafted and charity-minded, was "a bit sad," as John Lewis admitted recently.
Then again, #BusterTheBoxer doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's just harder to make uplifting, sentimental advertising that connects when there's a widespread feeling of gloom. It's a problem many Christmas advertisers, not just John Lewis, will be grappling with this season. The bar on making people feel good is just higher right now.
John Lewis seems to want it both ways—to make a heartfelt, sentimental piece that undercuts its own sentiment with a comic ending. That approach has its problems—when the dog wins, the girl loses—but it's charming enough in the end. And honestly, when it comes to storytelling, every John Lewis ad will have a hard time competing with "Monty's Christmas" and its truly magical ending.
Maybe, for a while, we can't have nice things. But kudos to John Lewis for trying anyway.
CREDITS
Client: John Lewis
Customer Director: Craig Inglis
Head of Marketing, Brand, Social: Rachel Swift
Agency: adam&eveDDB
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Directors: Richard Brim, Ben Tollett
Copywriter: Ben Stilitz
Art Director: Colin Booth
Chief Strategy Officer: David Golding
Planning Partner: Martin Beverley
Managing Director: Tammy Einav
Business Director: Miranda Hipwell
Account Director: Caroline Grayson
Account Manager: Alice Child
Producer: Panos Louca
Assistant Producer: Sion Prys
Media Planning
Media Company: Manning Gottlieb OMD
Chief Executive Officer: Tim Pearson
Executive Director, Head of Planning: Clare Peters
Head of Retail: David Bratt
Client Account Director: Andrew Darby
Client Account Director, Digital: Ric Roberts
Production Company: Blink Productions
Director: Dougal Wilson
Producer: Nick Goldsmith
Director of Photography: Joost Van Gelder
Production Manager: Hannah Fowles-Pazdro
Production Assistant: Jack Bingham
Postproduction Company: MPC
VFX Executive Producer: Julie Evans
VFX Producer: Hannah Ruddleston
VFX Line Producer: Sandra Ekland
Creative Director VFX, MPC: Diarmid Harrison-Murray
Colorist: Jean-Clément Soret
Shoot Supervisors: Tom Harding, Tito Fernandes
VFX Supervisor 3-D: Fabian Frank
VFX Supervisor 2-D: Tom Harding
Animation Supervisor: Tim van Hussen
3-D VFX Team: Chloe Dawes, Anthony Bloor, Ben Thomas, Graham Cristie, Jessie Amadio, Julien Labussiere, Luca Maccarelli, Matthew Gifford, Radu Ciubotariu, Tito Fernandes, Tushar Kewali, Vincent Ullman, Will Laban, Hanna Binswanger, Max Mallmann, Jessica Groom, Ankit Dheraj Toppo, Earnest Victor, Ganesh Kumar S., Bibin
Balan P, Gayatri Patel, Jyoti Prakash Panda, Manjunath Ramakrishnaiah, Inigo Vimal Roy, Ria Banerjee, Gayatri Patel, Gerard Dunleavy
Animation Team: David Bryan, Boris Cailly, India Barnardo, Martyn Smith, Lou Thomas, Cynthia Collins
2-D VFX Team: Grant White, David Filipe, Andreas Feix, Alex Snookes, Venkatesh Rajagopal, Ginesh Gandhi, Jonathan Box, Amresh Kumar, Padma Priya, Prasanth Palaparthi, Rajesh Kumar, Shalwin Shaiju, Yasasvini V, R. Vignesh, S. Samson Samuel, Shalwin Shaiju
Composer, Soundtrack: Randy Crawford, "One Day I'll Fly Away"
Performed by: Vaults
Music Supervision Company: Leland Music
Music Supervisors: Abi Leland, Ed Bailie
Sound Company: Factory
Sound Design, Mix: Anthony Moore
Audio Producer: Becs Bell
Editing: Final Cut
Editor: Rick Russell
VR Experience
Production Company: MPC Creative
Executive Creative Director, MPC Creative: André Assalino
Interactive Creative Director, MPC Creative: Pete Conolly
Executive Producer: Dan Phillips
Lead Producer: Joana Flor
Senior Interactive Producer: Joana Guimarães
Interactive Production Assistant: Sinead Catney
Lead Tech Artists: Pablo Bravo, Cat Dixon
Lead UE Developer: David Pereira
UE Developer Team: Dennis Ippel, Guiseppe Mattiolo, Thomas Lopez, Olivier Dumas, Bertrand Leroy
Lead Unity Developer: Tim Porteous
Unity Developer: Vitor Castanheira
Front and Back-end Developer: Pedro Rocha
UI Designer: Gorkem Menekse
VFX Supervisor: Kumar Chandrasekaran
VFX HoP: Sean Mullen
VFX Creative Director: David Kern
VFX Technical Directors: Selvam Venkatesan, Praveen Madhyasta
Animation: Anil Kumar Singh
Rigging VFX Artists: Matthew Gifford, Tushar Kewlani, Raju Ganesh, Baskaran Seetharaman, Pritesh Krishnappa Kotian, Atheesh Sankaran, Ashish Kumar Chourasiya, Shivam Pandey, Krishnendu Bikash Maity, Yogesh Gadge, Ganesh Mohan, Mithun Monga, Shashi Prakash Raj, Vivek Mangainath, Dhanesh Puthiyavalappil, Harwin Sebastien,
Srinivasa Sheelam, Aditya Shukla, Sminesh Sudevan
Senior VFX Producer: Tomek Zietkiewicz
VFX Production Supervisor: Devendra Kumar
VFX Producer: Prithi Amarnath
VFX Production Assistant: Lokesh Reddy
Tech Artist: Pravenn Thanvi
DMP: Michelle Tolo
Motion Designer: Jonny Eveson
Sound Design: 1618 Digital
Sound studio: ClearCut
Voiceover Artist: Faye Ripley
Interactive, Print, Social
Interactive Creative Director: Till Diestel
Lead Interactive Producer: Budr Elnusairi
Integrated Producer: Laura Smith
Assistant Producers: Naomi Barrie, Laurelle May
Interactive Design Lead: Andrew Murray
Project Managers: Hatty Day, Hannah Dowty
Head of Design: Paul Knowles
Designer: Olly Watts
Design Company: King Henry
Head of cain&abel production: Brett Kelsey
Editors: Hannah Taylor, Joe Andrews, Paul Cheshire, James Ireland
Motion Graphic Designer: Ed Christie
Photographer: Noemie Bottiau
Interactive Designers: Adrian Baker, Megan Young, Jennifer Slack, Hashir Khan, Norman Lo
Bookings Manager: Serena Moll
Interactive Resource Manager: Jacinta Crane
Interactive Partner: Simon Adamson
Social Media Director: Viki Imrie
Social Media Strategist: Jess Taylor
Social Media Manager: Lauren Booty