The John Lewis Christmas Ad
We have read and talked about how the John Lewis Christmas advert has become a marketing phenomenon over the last few years, with much anticipation of a newly released advert each year.
Last year, the audience reaction seemed to suggest that people had had enough of sentimentality and found the Man in the Moon advert too hard to relate to; possibly the message of old people being alone at Christmas was too bleak for some. Cynical audiences suggested that John Lewis had gone too far in their emotive music and childish innocence combination that had been a winning formula with the Monty the Penguin offering of 2014 (so successful that 'Monty' and 'Mable' toys were selling for hundreds of pounds on eBay.)
So what are the gratifications offered by their latest offering, Buster the Boxer?
Watch the advert again and consider the questions below:
1) What audience gratifications / pleasures are offered by the John Lewis brand? Consider all three adverts from 2014-2016. How are they similar in the pleasures they offer? How are they different?
Other media platforms have been reacting to the new John Lewis advert, and not all the feedback has been positive. Twitter users who are parents have been tweeting their outrage about the destruction of the Santa myth, and wildlife conservation groups have pointed out the irresponsibility of encouraging children to treat wild animals as pets and play with them in net-covered objects.
Now read the criticism about the new advert:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/john-lewis-2016-christmas-ad-12154739
The Manchester Evening News
https://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2016/nov/14/wildlife-charities-react-john-lewis-christmas-ad
The Guardian
2) What are the objections of some members of the audience? Do you agree or disagree with these viewpoints? Why?
The Battle of the Christmas Ads 2016
Many brands have jumped on the 'Christmas Ad' bandwagon in the past but 2016 seems to be the year where the advertising industry has really outdone itself, with many large industrial names fighting for recognition on social media through hash tags and the development of narrative arcs that involve the audience. Huge amounts of revenue have been spent on developing and making these adverts, including getting celebrity voice-overs; recording cover versions of new songs that can then be sold in connection with iTunes and downloaded on Spotify; producing merchandise connected to the ads and entering running times comparable with some short films.
Watch the most popular 2016 offerings and then answer the questions below in a new blog post:
1) Which do you think is the most appealing and why? Try to use some of our audience theory in your answer.
2) Are there any audience pleasures that two or more of the adverts have in common? Choose two examples to illustrate your point.
3) Choose a different advert and identify the target audience for the advert. Answer in terms of demography and psychography. What tells you this?
4) Why do you think Christmas adverts, in particular, often use emotive language and narratives to appeal to a wide audience?
5) Choose an advert with a narrative and, just for fun, apply one of our narrative theories to it. Why does a narrative have a place in an advert?
Answer the 5 questions (each question represents another week until Christmas...eek!)
Ho Ho Ho!
Miss Fowler
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