What John Lewis Has Woken Us All Up To

This lens makes the generational story even more poignant. The son isn’t rejecting connection or hiding behind tech; he’s rejecting tech as his language of care. In choosing an analogue act over a digital one, he models a more human form of strength: the courage to be emotionally visible. It reminds us not to be so hard on this generation. They’re not just chronically online; they’re also contending with competing scripts about how to express feeling and masculinity in a world that still tells men to stay composed. Those tensions make every subtle gesture more meaningful.

Yet this isn’t just about Gen Z. It’s about all of us. Because the same tools that made us more reachable have also made us more remote. We’ve spent a decade perfecting our online selves while neglecting our offline lives. Add in years of political division, pandemic isolation, and algorithmic echo chambers, and what’s left is a society fluent in reaction but struggling with reflection.

Recent research into why many people are drinking less revealed insights around our rising inability to connect. One U.S. male in his fifties told us: “The biggest reason people aren’t drinking as much is that they’ve forgotten how to have honest, face-to-face interactions.”

The result is emotional minimalism: a world where connection has been compressed to its most efficient form — a like, a swipe, a heart emoji. The emotional vocabulary that once lived in tone, touch, and shared experience has been flattened into pixels.

That’s why this ad lands so hard.

And here’s where brands - especially in CPG sectors - come in. Because the truth is, brands are some of the last bridges we all still cross together. Shared meals, familiar scents, comforting rituals: these are the places where connection still happens through the senses.

So, if society is losing its emotional vocabulary, brands must help rebuild it. Not by talking about connection, but by designing for it.

1. Design for Connection

Create products, packs, and rituals that prompt togetherness. Think of the small gestures that make people feel seen - a sharing format that encourages generosity, a product built for moments of pause rather than distraction.

2. Create Sensorial Anchors

In a digital world, the senses are the most direct route back to presence. Sensory experiences are how we remember we’re human. Products that awaken those senses don’t just satisfy; they reconnect.

3. Reframe Purpose as Emotional Repair

Consumers don’t need brands to save the planet in every ad. They need them to save something smaller but just as vital - the capacity to feel, to empathise, to reach out. The best brands in the years ahead will be those that help people feel human again.

4. Celebrate Imperfection

Just as that dad’s awkward dance made millions cry, authenticity will always beat polish. In a world of AI-generated perfection, imperfection is the new intimacy.

For CPG brands, this isn’t sentimentality. It’s strategy. Because as technology accelerates, the brands that win won’t be the ones that connect fastest, they’ll be the ones that connect deepest.