So will John Lewis trump the competition and be first on screen with its Christmas ad in 2022? In short no, the retailer has missed the boat, because the first Christmas 2022 ad is already airing now and runs until mid-February, across all major channels, including ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.

And it’s not as daft or “stunty” (if that’s a word), as it may seem, because the company behind the ad is Park Christmas Savings, a Christmas savings company that has been around for over 50 years. The ad encourages people to start saving now for next Christmas to take the stress out of what can be an expensive time of year.

Appreciate Group, Park Christmas Savings’ parent company, tasked TBWA\MCR with increasing its brand awareness and sign-ups whilst remaining true to the brand and displaying its joyful love of Christmas.

The resulting campaign is called ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ and the 30-second commercial humorously plays on just how “crackers” it is to mention Christmas 2022 so soon. However, Park says there is no time like the present to start putting money aside and plan for the perfect Christmas 2022.

It features Manchester actress Johanna Hinton, 36, who recently appeared in TV soap, Hollyoaks. She plays a savvy newscaster who announces that there is nothing to be sorry about when it comes to saving for Christmas.

“We wanted to embrace being the first brand to get a Christmas 2022 ad out there,” said James Poole, Co-founder of marketing consultancy Project50 and Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Appreciate Group. “Most people may be a little weary of Christmas by now. But we’re not. For us, we can’t wait for the next one to come around, so we wanted to share that joy.”