A student whose take on the John Lewis Christmas advert racked up almost half a million views has been praised by the retail giant.
Nick Jablonka created a version of the festive advert for his A-level media coursework and uploaded it to YouTube in June, but it has since gone viral.
The animated advert has earned him an invitation to go behind the scenes to see how John Lewis creates its television adverts.
The video, which follows the the story of a snowman who finds love after being trapped in a snow globe, confused some who thought it was the official John Lewis advert for this year.
It has been viewed around 468,000 times and has attracted high praise from John Lewis, which has become renowned for its annual Christmas campaign.
A spokesman for the retailer said: “Wow, what a great effort. Nick is clearly very talented, and we’d love to invite him in to spend some time with us behind the scenes to see how we create our TV ads.”
Mr Jablonka said he had no idea that the animation would prove so popular.
“You hear about things going viral, but you never think it will be you,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
He added: “I’m a fan of John Lewis adverts. When we think ‘Christmas’, we think ‘John Lewis’, so it gave me a lot of freedom as to what I could do.”
In a post on his YouTube page, Mr Jablonka said the video had taken him just two weeks to create from start to finish and he believed it “could do with a lot of work”.
But viewers praised his effort as “amazing” and “beautiful”.
One user wrote: “Now this is real talent. Discovering and watching real talent like this warms my heart. There’s hope yet for the future generation.”
Another wrote: “This is great. You’ll have a bright future in animation ahead of you if you so choose.”
