Harvey Nichols could well sneak down John Lewis’s chimney and swipe its presents from underneath its immaculately presented Christmas tree overnight, with its subtly hilarious effort, ‘Sorry I Spent It On Myself’.

This advert was released a full two weeks after John Lewis’s, ensuring that Harvey Nichols’ effort wouldn’t be lost amidst the fuss and hype surrounding the now traditional John Lewis ‘event’.

Also, by creating a video that’s funny, realistic and certainly a lot more cynical than we’re used to seeing in a Christmas ad, Harvey Nichols offers a direct and refreshing alternative to ‘The Bear and The Hare’, targeting viewers who are perhaps a little ‘Christmassed-out’ by mid-December.

‘Sorry I Spent It On Myself’ also has a third of the views as ‘The Bear and The Hare’, so viewers may be more inclined to give it an extra nudge into virality.

There’s only a week to go until Christmas, and the Harvey Nichols advert really has a lot of catching up to do in terms of total views, but you never know what miracles may happen. Perhaps Lidl will suddenly overtake the entire pack.

In the meantime, courtesy of The 7th Chamber, here’s a rundown of the current top 10 UK retail brands with the highest EPM on YouTube:

1: John Lewis

2: Harvey Nichols

3: TK Maxx

4: Marks & Spencer

5: Sainsbury’s

6: Tesco

7: Morrisons

8: Boots

9: Debenhams

10: Lidl

All of these clips should all immediately be catapulted above the Tesco one, purely for not using that horrible Rod Stewart track.