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Monty the Penguin

A lonely little boy's best friend is a penguin who mopes around wanting a mate of his own, and the boy spends the whole film quietly plotting how to fix that for Christmas. It's a three-minute short film with barely any product in sight, built entirely to make a department store synonymous with the emotional peak of the holiday season. It cemented the UK tradition of the John Lewis Christmas ad as its own annual cultural event.

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The story

A lonely little boy's best friend is a penguin who mopes around wanting a mate of his own, and the boy spends the whole film quietly plotting how to fix that for Christmas. It's a three-minute short film with barely any product in sight, built entirely to make a department store synonymous with the emotional peak of the holiday season. It cemented the UK tradition of the John Lewis Christmas ad as its own annual cultural event.

Why it worked

Takeaway for marketers

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