New John Lewis Ad

It continues that well observed through-the-ages thing, but jumps around a bit from era to era just to keep you on your toes. Lovely little touches, like the teacher’s smile when the kids don’t turn Elton John down.

As another point, though, how come so many ads are ‘through the ages’ these days? Is it a good-old-days-trying-to-help-us-forget-how-fucked-the-economy/government/footie-is thing?

I for one don’t buy it: the seventies always look a bit brown, dirty and depressing, like a long distance lorry driver’s shreddies. The eighties were full of rah-rah yuppies and Grange-Hill grimness. The nineties were all Color Me Badd, laddism and the awful arrogance of the Conservatives followed by the foetid cynicism of New Labour. Then we got into the 21st century where everything looks really rather lovely (except for the phone hacking, famine, genocide, tsunamis, Clive Allen’s moaning etc.).