Christmas ad campaigns for leading stores have become almost as much part of the festive season as advent calendars and mince pies, and in recent years John Lewis has been ahead of the pack with its emotive story-telling TV spots.

This year’s ad campaign, featuring Slow Moving Millie’s cover of The Smiths' B-side ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ has proved to be a huge success for the retailer. John Lewis released the ad online ahead of its first television airing and it quickly went viral, notching up over 3 million YouTube views and quickly becoming a hot topic on Twitter.

As well as tugging at heart strings across the country, the advert has helped John Lewis get what they really really want: pre-Christmas sales of over £500 million, despite the trend of gloom and doom on the high street.

‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ was originally released as a B-Side of The Smiths’ ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ in 1984.