The John Lewis Christmas ad is here and Buster the dog will melt your heart

Meet Buster the Boxer: he’s the star of this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert and he’s sure to melt your hearts and make you laugh this festive season.

Yes, the wait for the most anticipated Christmas ad is finally over, with retail giants John Lewis uncovering their latest piece of magic today, following on from 2015’s Man On The Moon campaign.

And this year, the bigwigs at John Lewis wanted to make us all laugh, believing that this year has been, er, ‘quite a year’.

Set to a cover version of Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away, performed by British band Vaults, (the rumours were true), the 2016 Buster The Boxer campaign sees John Lewis partnered with The Wildlife Trusts charity.

The two minute advert, which launches today at 8am online with the hashtag #BusterTheBoxer, tells the magical story of Buster the Boxer dog and his family at Christmas.

Buster’s co-star, a little girl named Bridget, loves to jump on her bed so her mum and dad buy her a trampoline for Christmas and hide it in the garden to surprise her on Christmas Day.

However, Buster spies a cast of wildlife animals emerging from the bushes at night – two foxes, a badger, a squirrel, and a hedgehog – who all discover how fun the trampoline is whilst Buster is inside watching from afar.

When Bridget wakes on Christmas morning, she runs down the stairs and sees her brand new toy in the garden, only to be left wide-eyed as Buster races past her and starts bouncing on her trampoline.

It’s not the usual emotional rollercoaster we’re used to, but it’s heartwarmingly cute, has bucketloads of charm and, don’t hold us to this, but it might mean you can actually watch a John Lewis advert without balling your eyes out for a change. (We said might).

Buster the Boxer was created by advertising agency adam&eveDDB and was directed by Dougal Wilson, who directed three previous John Lewis Christmas adverts including 2011’s The Long Wait, 2012’s The Journey, and 2014’s Monty’s Christmas. The CGI animation in the ad was created by London-based MPC Advertising, who were also behind 2014’s Monty The Penguin campaign.