Once upon a time, a man called John Lewis joined Twitter.

He clinched the handle @johnlewis for himself, because that is his name. Lo, the American computer science lecturer began using the social media platform accordingly. But all was not well in Twitter-land. Lewis found himself on the receiving end of thousands - literally, around 50,000 Tweets every year - relating to some other John Lewis and, specifically, this other John Lewis’ Christmas offering.

Lewis looked up his namesake and realised that over here in the UK there is a department store called John Lewis, founded by another John Lewis back in the 19th century. But instead of changing his Twitter handle or ignoring the Tweets not pertaining to himself, Lewis started to respond to the messages in his feed showering praise, offering feedback and demanding customer service. His Tweets became legendary, and he racked up more than 50,000 followers in the process.

And today Lewis graduates to the ultimate in department store-adjacent content: he stars in a Christmas advertisement all of his own.

The real John Lewis gets a hilarious Christmas advert of his own