John Lewis Christmas advert: MyVoucherCodes and School of Communication Arts students parody £7m ad to highlight festive spending

Team of creatives, directors, actors, and other budding professionals decide to take on the much-loved 2015 version

The parody cost just £700 and seven hours to make, compared with John Lewis' £7m and seven months (MyVoucherCodes/YouTube)

A group of art students has remade the now-famous £7 million John Lewis Christmas 2015 TV advert by making one of their own for just £700 to highlight how Christmas ‘doesn’t need a big budget’.

In conjunction with students from the School of Communication Arts (SCA) in London, online money-saving site MyVoucherCodes described how John Lewis spent the seven-figure sum and seven months creating their latest #ManOnTheMoon advert, and added: “So we thought we’d have a go and see what we could do with £700 and seven hours.”

With the help of a team of creatives, directors, actors, and other budding professionals from the SCA, MyVoucherCodes said it decided to create a ‘cheeky response to the much-loved British institution that is the John Lewis Christmas advert’.

Watch the parody:

In the video’s description, MyVoucherCodes says: “All the props are hand-made, all the backdrops are hand-drawn, we made our own soundtrack, and all the creatives were freshly developed in the immediate aftermath of watching the JL ad launch.”

Where the genuine advert ends with the caption ‘Show someone they’re loved this Christmas’ - as a way of highlighting loneliness among the elderly this winter - the parody version ends with ‘Some things need a big budget. Your Christmas isn’t one of them’.

It may not have reached the same heights as the actual John Lewis ad - which is currently nearing a whopping 13.6 million views on YouTube - but the parody version has still almost knocked-up an impressive 75,000 hits.

To follow the buzz and have your say about the MyVoucherCodes parody advertising, use the #NotOnTheMoon hashtag on social media