Man On The Moon

In a day in time when we have all become much too jaded and disconnected from the world around us, sometimes the inspiration we seek can come from the most unexpected places. We are constantly bombarded with messages of buy, buy, buy. Spend, spend, spend. Spend everything you have on the material things that at the end of the day, really don't mean that much and you probably can't afford anyway.  Now at this point, I should say that I am a believer in capitalism. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making money. I would never begrudge anyone anything they can get, as long as it's legal. At some point though, you have to ask yourself, "When is enough....enough?"  This is never more evident than it is during the holidays.  Here in the United States, while those department stores, car dealers, and electronic shops are hounding us for our money, there is one department store in England that is reminding us that it doesn't have to be that way and that they do still have a soul.

 John Lewis first opened it's doors back in the mid 1800's as a drapery shop and has grown over the years to become one the Britain's premiere retailers. While their success hasn't come without it's fair share of controversy, they do one thing that you don't see many American retailers doing.  Every year during the holiday, they, for the most part, forego a substantial  portion of their normal advertising in favor of emotionally drenched messages of hope, peace, and love. Those ads are almost always tied to some charitable organization in England and are designed to make people think and motivate them to take action. These ads are some of the most creative and effective the marketing industry has ever seen.

This years campaign is called Man On The Moon and has the tag line "Show someone they're loved this Christmas."  A partnership with AGE UK, John Lewis' Man On The Moon commercial and marketing campaign is designed to raise awareness and funds to help older people who alone, lonely, depressed, and sometimes go months at a time without talking to another living soul.  It even has a Twitter hashtag #ManOnTheMoon.

Take a couple of minutes and check out the commercial. It's probably the best Christmas commercial most Americans will never see.

There is absolutely nothing anywhere that says you can't make money and do good in the world at the same time. John Lewis is a great example of that.  Maybe someday some of our high profile American companies will figure that out.

Til Next time...........................