UK retailers look to penguins, WW1 soldiers to keep tills ringing

London

AS Christmas nears, British television screens are filled with heart-warming tales of lonely penguins, family reunions and homesick soldiers in an attempt to get customers to part with their cash.

More and more retailers are ditching traditional product advertisements for mini-movies about love and friendship and these have become a national talking point, ranked against each other by the media and subject to parody online.

High-street department store John Lewis, which started the trend a few years ago, again leads the pack with a tear-jerking tale of a little boy who makes his lonely toy penguin's Christmas by buying him a mate. The two-minute video, which reportedly cost £7 million (S$14.3 million), has been watched more than 17 million times since it went online in early November. The retailer is also doing a roaring trade in little fluffy toys of …