John Lewis Christmas Ad Features a Very Impatient Boy & the Music of The Smiths

John Lewis Christmas Ad 2011Christmas marketing seems to be launching earlier every year, so I wasn’t that surprised when I began to see holiday decorations for sale even before the Halloween candy and costumes were being packed up and put away.

UK retailer John Lewis is out early with their 2011 Christmas ad featuring a boy who like me, just can’t wait for Christmas. No matter what the boy does; including casting a spell dressed as a wizard; he just cannot make time move any faster.

John Lewis’ Christmas Ads over the past years have included some interesting remakes of classic songs. In 2008 Matt Spinner’s version of The Beatles ‘From Me to You‘ was featured. In 2009 the Christmas ad featured Taken By Tree’s version of the Guns n’ Roses classic Sweet Child O’Mine. In 2010 Ellie Goulding performance of Elton John’s ‘Your Song‘ was used and even went on to reach #2 on the UK singles chart.

The 2011 ad features Slow Moving Millie’s (Amelia Warner) rendition of The Smiths mournful classic ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’. The track can be purchased for £0.99 at the UK iTunes store. And just in case you’re curious, Morrissey is cool with the song being used in the advert.

UPDATE, Nov 21: An 11 track album of songs used in John Lewis’ ad is available for pre-order on iTunes now and will be going on sale on November 28 at £7.99, with £2 for every album sale donated to to Save the Children. A CD version will be made available in all John Lewis stores.

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Randy MathesonI am a Nova Scotia raised Creative Guy, currently Director of Emerging Media at Delvinia, a Digital Strategy & Customer Experience Design Firm in Toronto. I’m a huge fan of the creative use of digital technologies in social media, marketing, sports and entertainment. I use this blog to share the more interesting examples that I find. If you’re in need of a break, join me over at Madtini.com for a cocktail.

Kickstarter Project Transforms Smiths Songs Into Comic Book

Unite and Take Over - Smiths Comic Book

Illustration by Jason Pedersen.

Tuscon comic book store owner Shawn Demumbrum has come up with an interesting way to show his love of The Smiths. He’s recruited a group of his comic book artist and writer friends to create Unite and take Over a book of stories based on The Smiths songs including ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’, ‘Panic’,’Shoplifters of the World’ and 12 others. Each song serves as inspiration or a jumping off point for the creative teams to transform them into 4-8 page illustrated stories.

Shawn turned to social pledge site Kickstarter to finance the comic book project. The original goal was to raise $3000 for the book’s printing costs, an ISBN code and to license the songs from The Smiths. The project has inspired Kickstarter users to step up and pledge over $12,000 so far. The extra financing has allowed Shawn to up the print-run to 2500 copies and is already planning a followup book of more stories inspired by The Smiths.

The book will be unveiled at the Tuscon ComicCon in November. There are still a few weeks left to get involved and pledge money to the Unite and Take Over project, copies of the comic book will be available in digital or print format for anyone who donates at least $10.

What is your favorite song by The Smiths?