--- title: John Lewis Monty the Penguin Christmas Ad: Video description: Get ready for a little early holiday cheer canonical: https://time.com/3560714/john-lewis-christmas-penguin-ad/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-06T16:13:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:24.813Z og:title: This Christmas Ad About a Lonely Penguin Will Warm Your Heart og:description: Get ready for a little early holiday cheer og:url: https://time.com/3560714/john-lewis-christmas-penguin-ad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt329b5b93cb1d3966/698764a55f570f18f7b13221/screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-10-42-50-am.png?branch=production&width=650&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 650 og:image:height: 366 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-11-06 at 10.42.50 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Christmas Ad About a Lonely Penguin Will Warm Your Heart twitter:description: Get ready for a little early holiday cheer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt329b5b93cb1d3966/698764a55f570f18f7b13221/screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-10-42-50-am.png?branch=production&width=650&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Christmas Ad About a Lonely Penguin Will Warm Your Heart > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6fd81253-dae1-41d8-a9aa-a3b2e3a8f0cd&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Nov 6, 2014 4:13 PM UTC   by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Nov 6, 2014 4:13 PM UTC John Lewis, a British department store known for [tearjerking holiday ads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0) that rack up millions of YouTube page views, is out with its 2014 commercial featuring a CGI penguin looking for love in a hopeless place to the tune of a cover of John Lennon’s “Real Love.” Sure, Monty the penguin has fun bouncing on trampolines with the boy he lives with. But in the weeks before the holidays, when he’s watching romantic movies and seeing couples take leisurely strolls in the snow, he decides he wants something more than just fetching plastic building blocks for an elementary school kid and eating the boy’s leftovers at meal times. Where are the other pet penguins for him to play with in London? Are they on Tinder? Just when he thought he would be alone forever, he wakes up Christmas morning to find a penguin in a box waiting for him under the family’s Christmas tree. For, you know, friendship. [Satirists](http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/john-lewis-advert-condones-penguin-sex-trafficking-2014110692534) are already having a field day with the spot, joking that it condones sex trafficking in the penguin world. **Update:** [@JohnLewis](https://twitter.com/johnlewis) is not the department store, Twitter: .[@R11Gordon](https://twitter.com/R11Gordon?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Thanks, but my delivery fee to the UK is enormous. Best go local: [@johnlewisretail](https://twitter.com/JohnLewisRetail?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) — John Lewis (@johnlewis) [November 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/johnlewis/status/530397305133072384?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) **WATCH:** [Here Is An Extremely Important Video of Tiny Penguins Dressed Up Like Santa](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/18/here-is-an-extremely-important-video-of-tiny-penguins-dressed-up-like-santa/) **MORE:** [FLOTUS and the Penguins of Madagascar Team Up for Veterans Day](http://time.com/3559830/flotus-madagascar-penguins-michelle-obama-veterans-day/) **MORE:** [These Cute Rescued Penguins Need You to Knit Little Sweaters For Them](http://time.com/13575/knit-for-oil-damaged-penguins/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3560714/john-lewis-christmas-penguin-ad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3560714/john-lewis-christmas-penguin-ad/"},"headline":"This Christmas Ad About a Lonely Penguin Will Warm Your Heart","datePublished":"2014-11-06T16:13:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:24.813Z","description":"Get ready for a little early holiday cheer","url":"https://time.com/3560714/john-lewis-christmas-penguin-ad/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt329b5b93cb1d3966/698764a55f570f18f7b13221/screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-10-42-50-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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