John Lewis Christmas advert 2014: Monty the Penguin is likely to sell out and Tom Odell’s cover of John Lennon’s Real Love is a contender to top the festive charts
Monty the penguin has been released into the wild… but it looks like he won’t be there for long.
The cute character and star of John Lewis’ highly anticipated Christmas ad, which will either bring a tear to your eye or make you feel nauseous depending on your disposition, is proving popular already.
Merchandise featuring the cuddly creature is odds-on to sell out in the run up to Christmas.
Ladbrokes has given it odds on at 4/5 that the Monty cuddly toy – just one of the 39 items in the range which also includes Monty onesies and penguin brollies – will sell out online and instore before Christmas day. Paddy Power is also offering odds of 5/4 that it will sell out.
Bookies are also predicting the ad will be the most successful yet, beating last year’s Bear & Hare ad according to Ladbrokes at 1/10, while Paddy Power is offering odds of 9/4 it will surpass 15 million views by 31 December.
In just three hours, the ad has already had 28,790 views on YouTube and the hashtag #montythepenguin is the world's top trending topic on Twitter.
The song featured in the ad – Tom Odell’s cover of John Lennon song Real Love – is given odds of 5/1 and 1/1 to top the charts and become this year’s Christmas number one.
It’ll be a long-shot for any other retailer trying to steal John Lewis’ thunder as the best Christmas ad of the year.
Rival retailer Marks and Spencer and John Lewis sister brand Waitrose are given odds of 100/1 and 200/1 for the most YouTube views by the end of the year.
The new ad will have to crack 13m YouTube views to become more successful than last year's. Here's what Monty has to live up to.
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