Every year, John Lewis, a British retail company that’s known for its incredibly touching series of Christmas advertisements, chooses a charity aimed at raising money and awareness. This year Buster the Boxer helps to deliver his campaign urging more children and their parents to discover the love of British wildlife and support the The Wildlife Trusts.
The two-minute video features an adorable little girl named Bridget and her five-year-old dog Biff (played by Buster the Boxer of course). Bridget is all excited as she waits impatiently for the next day – Christmas. Meanwhile her parents have purchased a trampoline for her and hide it in the garden to surprise her in the morning. And in the delightful world of magical events on Christmas Eve, Buster watches a cast of wildlife emerge from the nearby woods and frolic on the trampoline.
As Christmas morning comes about, Bridget runs out to the garden to find her present, but Buster runs out ahead of her – jumps onto the trampoline and starts bouncing. Bridget just watches in complete surprise and utter delight!
According to John Lewis, the hope of the advertisement was to make people smile as they think of having given the perfect Christmas gift, however the response has become polarized. According to the Guardian, Simon Cowell, chief executive of The Wildlife Aid Foundation, described wildlife and pets being killed or injured by netting used in gardens as “a massive, massive problem.”
“We go out to tens if not hundreds of incidents each year where fruit nets, football nets and other garden netting has killed or injured foxes, deer, badgers and owls. We have been out to a fox that was stuck on a trampoline. Now we are bound to get some idiotic parent or child who will put their pet on the trampoline and get them to bounce up and down.”
Then again the videos in the past have had a long history of cute anthropomorphism.
The Wildlife Trusts’ backing for the video might be expected because they receive ten percent of the retail price of the advertisement’s soft toys, but the Badger Trust and Brian May’s Save Me Trust are also benefiting. See what you think:
(Photos of Buster the Boxer via YouTube video)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo
I saw this commercial before and I love it!