'Lunar creep!': Twitter Scrooges pick apart the message of festive joy in John Lewis's new £7m Christmas ad – as students mock it with dodgy £700 remake

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It cost £7million and took seven months to make but the John Lewis Christmas advert has met mixed reactions online - with some branding it 'creepy'.

The touching advert tells the story of a little girl determined to send a present to a lonely old man on the moon - that she spies through a telescope - to show he is not forgotten about this Christmas.

A Mail Online poll reveals that a massive 72 per cent of readers though it was the best Christmas advert this year, but Twitter took a slightly different message, branding the old man a 'paedo'.

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These stills from the John Lewis Man On The Moon Christmas advert show the moment the old man receives a telescope and a wave from a little girl on earth

John Lewis launched the video with Twitter tag #ManOnTheMoon yesterday, but before long, both #ManOnTheMoon paedo and #ManOnTheMoon Jimmy Saville were trending.

One user summed the advert up with a Tweet saying: 'Creepy lunar paedo grooms girl from space,' and hundreds more Tweeted about it with #grooming.

Some made the link between the advert and 1990s mockumentary spoof Brass Eye, in which they claimed to have blasted child molester Sidney Cooke into space and talked of 'Paedogeddon'.

Many users noticed a remarkable likeness between Cooke and the man on the moon, a 77-year-old French actor named Jean, who features alongside the six-year-old girl. 

The Jimmy Saville link continues to gain steam online today, with users claiming the advert shows that the paedophile is not dead, he has just gone to live on the moon.

One user wrote: 'So Jimmy Saville got sent to the moon instead? The old beeb can sort anything!'

It's even prompted someone to set up a parody account for John Lewis Moon Man, who Tweeted: 'If one more person asks me if I'm Jimmy Saville, I'm going to aim my toilet at the Earth next time I flush it!' 

This year the story opens with a little girl called Lily using a telescope and spying an old man, living alone in a little wooden house in a crater on the moon.

The spoof John Lewis ad by students at the School of Communication Arts in London cost just £700

She tries desperately to send him a message but all her efforts fail, while he remains unaware that anyone cares about him and sits alone on a bench, wistfully staring up at the Earth.

Eventually, on Christmas morning, a present arrives from the sky, carried by party balloons, and the old man unwraps it to reveal a vintage telescope.

He uses it to spot Lily and, realising that someone cares about him, his eyes fill with tears.

John Lewis refused to give the full names of the two main actors, but said the little girl is played by a six-year-old called Orlii from North London, in what is her first TV appearance.

LONG-AWAITED £7MILLION RACKS UP SIX MILLION HITS IN FIRST 24 HOURS

Within a day of being released the John Lewis Christmas advert had racked up almost six million views online.

The video has racked up 6million hits in a day

The full two-minute ad, featuring the story of a young girl named Lily striking up a connection with an elderly man living alone on the moon, had been watched around 5.9 million within the first 24 hours of it appearing on YouTube.

A number of other big-name brands and retailers also launched their Christmas campaigns, but did not attract anywhere near the same number of views.

Aldi's offering, which is set to My Favourite Things from The Sound Of Music, recorded by up-and-coming British artist Jade Williams, was watched just under 7,000 times in the 14 hours since it was uploaded.

Boots' advert had been viewed more than 113,500 times since it was put on YouTube on November 5, while Cadbury's effort was watched by just under 9,000 people in the first day it was online.

The chocolate giant's advert is based around 24 of its trucks in the shape of an advent calendar.

Real-life actors replaced by dolls and telescopes replaced by toilet roll

An original vocal was also recorded by the students with no auto-tuning required for the spoof

It was made in co-operation with Age UK and aims to raise awareness of the thousands of lonely elderly people who can go months without coming into contact with another human being and often feel increasingly isolated over the festive season. 

The soundtrack is a version of the Oasis song Half The World Away, performed by 19-year-old Norwegian singer Aurora and probably best known as the theme tune to BBC sitcom The Royle Family.

Some people have also blasted the ad for using the Oasis cover, with @colinandandrew writing: 'And don't even get me started on the murder of an Oasis song.'

Colin was annoyed with the cover version of Oasis' Half The World Away by Norwegian singer Aurora, and this seemed to irk plenty of others too

And one London-based group of student have recreated their own budget version of Man On The Moon. Forget £7m, this costs £700, and instead of taking seven months to create it took seven hours.

Tagged 'Somethings need a big budget, your Christmas isn't one of them,' MyVouchercodes worked with students at the School of Communication Arts to recreate the John Lewis ad.

After frantically scraping together shoestring props including 'moon coloured sand' from local builders, toys from local shops and a number of budget telescopes the final video was produced within budget and within time constraints, titled 'Christmas Doesn't Cost The Moon'.

The video sees a wonderfully created, 'discounted' recreation of the original John Lewis advert – produced on an archetypal shoestring budget.

After frantically scraping together shoestring props including 'moon coloured sand' from local builders, toys from local shops and a number of budget telescopes the final video was produced within budget

The message at the end of the spoof ad by London students is that Christmas doesn't have to be expensive - an obvious dig at the money spent on John Lewis's advert

John Lewis' big money moon shots are replaced with hand-drawn art sets, real-life actors replaced by dolls and telescopes replaced by toilet roll. 

All props were either homemade or sourced from pound shops, with backdrops crafted in seven hours, accompanied by a vocal recorded by the students with no auto-tuning required.

The video climaxes with the message that 'Christmas doesn't have to be big budget.'

The owner of the Twitter handle @johnlewis was also in for a tough time, seeing his Twitter feed over-run by thousands of people talking about the high street giant's new ad.

He kept a running commentary detailing various requests people had made from him, and then told the world how he wished his parents had named him 'Betascandilifous Hornblatorium.'

It was always going to be a busy time of notifications for John Lewis, the owner of Twitter handle @johnlewis

The most controversial comments and criticisms of the advert were that it was 'creepy' and 'disturbing.'

Users on Twitter pointed towards scenes showing an elderly man peering through a telescope into a child's bedroom that quickly became a talking point.

Rick Burin wrote: 'Send an old man a telescope to spy on your family this Christmas,' while Geraldine Avery added: 'What's with the new John Lewis ad?

'It's really creepy! Old guy peering into small child's house.'

There was welcome support for the John Lewis ad from many on social media, while others were keen to emphasise the real meaning of the clip

Faye Stanage wondered if there was any underlying message given out by the retailer

The notion of an elderly man using a telescope to interact with a young girl caused some to question the storyline

Rick Burin took a somewhat unsympathetic response to the plight of the lonely old man

But the advert got a positive response from thousands of people who Tweeted about the moving story, and many jumped to its defence.

Rhiannon Walpole wrote: 'People who think "pervert" are clearly damaged themselves. Such a sweet, moving advert.'

Urszula Ladysz said: Is there anything more emtional and heart moving? @johnlewisretail couldn't have come up with a better idea. 

Although even some who liked the advert weren't quite sure on the message, with Faye Stannage writing: 'Lovely advert, but not sure what it has to do with @johnlewisretail?! Do they sell telescopes?'

And Rick Burin decided to speak the obvious when he wrote: 'If you move to the moon, you should expect to be lonely.' 

This seems like it could be one that rumbles on even after Christmas has passed us by.

It is currently leading the way as the most popular store advert released for Christmas 2016.

At the time of writing, the John Lewis story of a six-year-old girl who is determined to get a message to a lonely old 'Man on the Moon' has been voted the best by a whopping 72 per cent of MailOnline readers.

But at a cost of £1million, with a further £6million going on booking TV slots, taking seven months in total to produce, you'd expect it to feature high in the popularity stakes.

However, perhaps to be expected, the release has not been met positively on all sides, with social networks blazing a trail in online discussion. 

All props were either homemade or sourced from pound shops, all backdrops handmade and crafted in seven hours

Some have called it creepy, others have blasted using a cover of an Oasis song, while the most damning assessment comes from people comparing it to a spoof satire on paedophilia from the 1990s. 

The John Lewis advert is estimated to have cost £7m in total to produce and book on TV slots

Some users likened the advert to the spoof clip from 1990s show Brass Eye, where paedophile Sidney Cooke was blasted into space

The little girl tries several attempts to 'contact' the man on the moon, but all fail

Rhiannon Walpole believes there is no way the advert can be construed as anything other than 'moving'

One of their clips included a faux newscaster announcing that convicted paedophile Sidney Cooke was blasted into space on a rocket so that he could 'pose no further threat to children.'

'But it was revealed that an eight year old boy was also placed on board by mistake, and is now trapped alone in space with the monster,' the show continues.

'A spokesperson said: "This is the one thing we didn't want to happen.'"

Twitter user @Flatus74 writes: Brass Eye predicted the John Lewis advert years ago,' while Sam Hilson adds: 'Guess we know what happened to the guy that was blasted in to space in the "peadogeddon" episode of Brass Eye,' and then hash tags Man On The Moon. 

The little girl looks out of her telescope and spots the lonely old man going for a walk on the moon