Video analysis - John Lewis Christmas Advert

By Jordan Blythin

John Lewis Christmas Advert

Product or service

The advert is trying to sell john lewis store products. Mainly family oriented in the sense that it spends a lot of time showing off household furniture that would be of value to the whole family.

Year of release and who made it

The advert was made in 2014 and was made by john lewis with the intention of selling john lewis products for the holidays.

C&C

The advert seems symbolic from how it’s used facial expressions, character positions and use of clothing. Facial expressions used make the advert for the most part seem happy, with the odd few that make it seem sad. These expressions can be seen in multiple ways. With the sad expressions it can be seen that christmas shouldn’t be spent alone, whilst the happy expressions show that having someone to spend christmas with makes it a much more enjoyable holiday.

Form & Style

The advert is made out to be surreal, this is done by the use of CGI to make the penguin seem like it’s able to live in a domestic environment. This is used effectively as the advert makes it seem like the penguin almost belongs in this environment. As a result it creates the idea for a very surreal world where penguins are able to live in domestic environments.

Persuasive Techniques

Uses reward and punishment by giving messages saying your family will have a better christmas with these nice home products. This technique as a result will persuade the viewer to buy these products because they’ll see that this family is having a good christmas with these products and will want the same thing.

Demographic

Targets adults and families, uses a child to make it more kid friendly. Emphasises this further by showing a shot of the family at 55 seconds. The use of the child makes the advert more kid friendly while still being more centered to adults and their families. Reason being that this advert is trying to sell home furniture and a child won't want to or be able to buy home furniture, so it makes more sense to aim this at adults.

Socio-economic groups

Aimed for groups A, B & C1 because of all the nice furniture and decorations. This gives the impression that only these high income groups can afford these products.

Psychographics

The advert is more targeted towards the mainstreamers group because of all the family branded products and the domestic environment used within the advert.

Maslow

Shows a family in what seems like a wealthy household which implies the advert is targeted towards the self-actualization group. This could be saying these kinds of things would only be accessible to them because they would have reached the previous elements before hand.

Lighting and Colour

The advert uses a lot of high key lighting in the advert with followed use of bright colouring to give off a more christmas feeling when it reaches the christmas time of the adverts timeline. It uses low key lighting, darker colours and light from the TV at 54 seconds to shine more attention to the family, but more noticeably the boy. This indicates that the boy is singled out in his family and can suggest why he is sitting on his own in a small chair.

Props & settings The advert is set in a town/small city in britain but spends most of it’s time at the young boys house. This could suggest the boy is quite intimidated of the going outside, and chooses to stay at home, giving reason as to why we see it so often. While in the house it shows off a lot of nice and expensive looking household items to show off john lewis products.

Costume, hair & makeup

Shows a lot of thick and christmas themed clothing throughout the advert. This gives off a message telling the audience to make sure they buy warm clothing from john lewis for the holidays.

Positioning of characters/objects in the frame

At 54 seconds it shows that he is sat on a small chair on his own. This creates the idea that he is singled out in his family and sits on his own as a result. It also suggests that he is lonely as well and sees the penguin as his only friends and that’s why we see it as of it’s alive, because we’re seeing it from his perspective. It also shows off a christmas tree and a lot of christmas decorations, this makes it seem more family friendly while including more product placement.

Facial expressions & body language

It shows a lot of shots of the boy smiling and laughing with the penguin, showing that both of them are happy and in a good mood. This gives off the message that christmas is a time to be happy and spend time with family and friends. This is further illustrated by the penguin also making sad facial expressions at certain points in the advert in the second half of the advert. at 1:47 the mother gives of a look that makes her almost seem disgusted when she looks at her son with the two penguins. Further shows that he seen as an outcast or even that she thinks he’s getting too old to be playing with stuffed toy penguins.

Camera shots

The advert uses a lot of mid to long shots to show different view point of the child and his penguin, as having more shots that gives us more of a look at his facial expressions show more emotion through the advert. It uses a close up shot at the beginning to give us the impression that their like best friends. It also uses close ups of the penguin when he’s giving sad expressions to show more emotion through the adverts duration.

Diegetic sound

The penguin makes no sounds in certain parts of the advert alongside his sad expressions to make the viewer feel bad for him because he feels lonely. However he makes a lot of squawk like noises through the advert showing that otherwise he feels happy and that life is good around the holidays.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Through the duration of the advert, a sad song is playing to make the advert seem more emotional as it takes place around the holidays. This creates a possible effect on the viewer, possibly making them feel sad and want to spend more time with their families because of the music mixed with how they single out the child.

Editing

The advert skips forward in time by each season in different shots. This gives the message that time goes quick and that the holidays come round quick. It also makes christmas seem like a timeless holiday.

Ending

Thank you for watching this video analysis powerpoint for the john lewis christmas advert of 2014.