YoungOnes spoof John Lewis advert – penguin played by classic bloke in onesie

Remember onesies?


Two entrepreneurs have created a viral spoof of the new John Lewis Christmas ad – featuring a man finding love in a penguin onesie.

Chris Rea and Tom Carson launched their hilarious pastiche of the heartwarming story featuring youngster Sam and Monty the penguin.

Their low-budget version portrays the characters as students living in a shared house, with one dressed in a comical onesie.

While Sam stays the same, the penguin has been renamed Jonty.

The spoof has now attracted more than 10,000 hits worldwide and is increasing traffic to Chris and Tom’s clothing website, YoungOnes.

Chris, 23, said: “We were hoping to come up with a Christmas campaign this year which really caught people’s eye.

“In the past we’ve made some decent adverts but we were really struggling with people sharing them and getting them out there.

“We came up with the idea of using the John Lewis advert about a month ago but it could have gone either way depending on what they chose to use.

“When we saw it, it was a no brainer really, we got two of our friends to play the characters and spent all day making it.

“Our whole brand is for students so it seemed logical to use that as our base, and it went from there.”

Poor bastard

Jonty the Penguin. He loves the banter

The Exeter University business school graduates founded the clothing brand in 2012 during their second year.

The pair started off by designing a premium onesie that fit the student budget and began selling to friends out of their student home in the halls of residence.

Word quickly spread to universities nationwide and YoungOnes were keeping students cozy during the cold winter months.

so kyutte

Grabbing a slice

YoungOnes even spread across the pond with America’s iconic university Harvard placing an order with the boys.

Chris and Tom, 24, then realised demand was rapidly increasing with onesie stock filling their bedrooms to the brim.

The entrepreneurs juggled their daily trips to the post office with their degrees and international hockey careers.

An insight into the worrying world of penguin sex trafficking

The sinister conclusion

The pair featured in the Dragon’s Den series last year and received £75,000 investment from Duncan Bannatyne.

The duo went full time on their dream and the brand now has a full range of products from bright boat shoes to sustainable wooden sunglasses.