Audience: The Battle of the Christmas adverts

John Lewis 2014 - Monty The Penguin

John Lewis 2015 - Man on the Moon

John Lewis 2016 - Buster the Boxer

Marks and Spencer 2016

Sainsbury's 2016

Heathrow Airport 2016

Aldi 2016

Very 2016

1) Which do you think is the most appealing and why? Try to use some of our audience theory in your answer. 

Personally my favourite is the Marks and Spencer one because I think as well as having the simple theme of family/friendship like most of the others, it also uses the relationship between the brother and sister to convey a further message that Christmas can mend what may seem like broken/breaking relationships and therefore gives its audience hope that the Christmas they would otherwise be dreading could be unexpectedly happy and enjoyable. I think one theory that could be associated with this advert is Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory, specifically personal identity because the problems depicted in this advert are prevalent in most families around the country and so it could have more of an emotional impact on people that can relate to it, making it more appealing to them than the other adverts.

2) Are there any audience pleasures that two or more of the adverts have in common? Choose two examples to illustrate your point. 

The Very and Sainsbury's adverts are both animated and this allows audiences of all ages to become immersed in the Christmas spirit that these companies are trying to spread throughout society. They also both give us brief insight into different groups of people's lives at Christmas e.g. the elderly and similarly to the M&S advert, it lets these groups of people feel welcome and included in their community's celebrations, especially since a lot of elderly people tend to spend Christmas on their own, so watching these adverts and seeing elderly people in the adverts being included and remembered at Christmas gives them reassurance and comfort that they are on someone's mind.

3) Choose a different advert and identify the target audience for the advert. Answer in terms of demography and psychography. What tells you this?

I think a potential target audience for the Aldi advert could be children for a number of reasons. Firstly, the main character in the advert is an animated carrot and this could be Aldi's way of getting children more interested in eating vegetables, rather than turning their nose up at them as most children typically do. Furthermore the story being narrated by Jim Broadbent is a slightly different version of The Night Before Christmas, a story normally told to children at Christmas so this could also help in retaining the attention of a younger audience, therefore making them excited about more than just the 'presents' aspect of Christmas. Also, the music in the background is the score of Home Alone which some older children may recognise so this use of synergy could be something that initially grabs their attention and keeps them interested throughout the whole advert. In terms of psychographics, I think of the seven groups suggested by Young and Rubicam, the people most likely to watch this advert and feel compelled to buy its products I think would come under Mainstreamers because Aldi is a very family oriented brand, as demonstrated by the advert and they always put emphasis on their food being very good value for money which is what Mainstreamers favour in brands.

4) Why do you think Christmas adverts, in particular, often use emotive language and narratives to appeal to a wide audience?

Similarly to their common use of animation, I think it's so audiences of all ages and backgrounds can feel the excitement of Christmas together. For children I think it's so they can see that Christmas is literally everywhere and it enhances the magic of the season and brings it to life for them. For adults though, it could be seen as a small form of escapism that enables them to briefly forget about the realities of life and feel like children again and perhaps if they're feeling particularly stressed about Christmas, the way Christmas is portrayed in these adverts could potentially relieve some of the stress/anxiety they are facing and allow them to enjoy Christmas more.

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? 

This is this year's Waitrose Christmas advert that tells the story of a robin's perilous journey at Christmas time. If I were to apply a narrative theory to it I would use Todorov's theory of equilibrium. We could say that the beginning of the advert when the robin starts its journey and the girl is putting another mince pie out is the equilibrium - we assume that the mince pie is for the robin and we expect it to arrive safely but its journey is disrupted by several things - predators, bad weather, getting stepped on by a sailor etc and these are what cause the narrative's disequilibrium. But then after all its ordeals, we see that it has been looked after and it is finally able to continue its journey and it eventually finds its way back to the girl's house and gets to eat its mince pie - this is the new equilibrium because it restores the happiness in both the girl and the audience. I think a narrative has a place in an advert because it grabs the audience's attention in a way that just showing them the products doesn't and if (more often than not) the narrative is a happy one which leaves the audience feeling happy, they should feel more compelled to go out and purchase whatever is being advertised because they now have this positive preconception that the product will appeal to them as much as the advert has.