Monty's Goggles

Remember last year's hibernating bear getting woken up by his inconsiderate mate the hare? Today John Lewis launched this year's advert, about a mentally unstable little boy who hallucinates himself a pet called Monty. Like Harvey the rabbit, only Monty is a penguin.

Opinion will no doubt be divided about whether the advert is a sweet, heartwarming story which will put the nation in the right frame of mind to embrace the joyous festive season, or a crass, sickly contrived attempt to pull at the heartstrings in the way that only evil corporate masterminds can.

The company also launched Monty's Goggles, which use Google's virtual reality goggles and Samsung smartphones to let shoppers in the stores explore an interactive story in a 360-degree virtual panoramic world.

I tried them out, in the interests of good reportage, but they didn't seem to be doing anything. I asked a helpful assistant to show me where I was going wrong, and after a bit of fiddling about, he confirmed that they weren't working. Maybe batteries aren't included.

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Alternate version (thanks, Red, for ruining a cute tale)