Christmas Advert Comparison
Research
In order to make ‘In Depth production’s’ Christmas advert the best we can I did some research. As part of that research, I looked at different adverts from John Lewis and competing brands. I did this for inspiration on our Christmas advert so we can get ideas to make ours the most professional and John Lewis like. After looking at a range of iconic John Lewis adverts, I noticed that there’s a running theme of venerability. In almost every advert they have put out there's either a young child, an older person or even animals and objects that have come to life like teddy bears. There's always someone at risk. They always use soft, sweet covers of songs. Whichever song is used in the advert usually gets a lot more popularity after which is great for the artist and also proves that people do watch the advert and take something away from it. Then, of course, they put the John Lewis logo on the screen, so everyone knows who’s responsible for the advert. I also noticed that when John Lewis creates their adverts, they aren’t trying to sell any item in particular, they are just trying to create an advert that will catch people’s attention and get them thinking about John Lewis which evidently makes the brand more money. However, for each advert, John Lewis make merchandise for the advert that a lot of the children get for Christmas which then, makes the advert a lot of money.
After watching rewatching all of the famous John Lewis adverts again,
some that really stood out to me are; the man on the moon, Edgar the dragon and
Moz the monster. All three of these adverts include vulnerability. There are
children in each advert to provide a sense of innocence, this is done to make
the audience feel sympathetic of the character.
I also looked at adverts made by other brands to see the similarities
between them. Every Christmas advert has to have enough emotion, vulnerability
and heart warmth to really reach out to the audience and emotionally capture
them in their story. That’s what we were mainly focused on with our advert, we
mainly just wanted people to feel something because of it. We also wanted
people to have an opinion on our advert like people always do with adverts from
John Lewis or brands like Sainsburys, because if people watch it and don’t have
feelings about the advert then its not a very good advert. We didn’t just want
people to watch our advert and just know the story, we wanted them to be taken
on the journey and connect with the characters, that’s a good Christmas advert.
An advert from another company that I think did an amazing job of using
someone who is vulnerable to spread a message is ‘Find Your Purpose’ by Doc
Morris. Doc Morris is a pharmacy and the 2020 advert has a man around 75 years
old start to lift weights. He really struggled at first, but he was determined
and to keep him inspired he always looked at a picture, but we can’t see what
the picture is. Then one night he goes round to his daughter’s house and gives
his young granddaughter a star to put on top of the Christmas tree. Then the
same way he lifted the kettlebell he surprisingly lifted up his granddaughter
so she could put the star on the tree. Then at the end, it took us back the
house where he exercises and revealed that the picture was of the young girl,
and the whole time he had been training for that special moment with her. I
thought this advert was incredibly beautiful and meaningful and I even cried at
the end. This just proves that the company really understands how to get
through to people. I read the comments of the advert and it’s filled with
people saying how it made them emotional. One man wrote, “18-year-old guy, and
this made me cry”, this is a really good because it proves that this advert
really warms people of any age and gender. Another commenter said “wow. Pegged
it. Thankyou from another 63-year-old working to get back in the game of living
life.” This is also an excellent review because it shows that the advert makes
people hopeful, and it seems like this advert really inspires people to change
their own life for the better. Before this advert id never heard of Doc Morris
as it is a German business so this just shows how much of a reach an advert can
have.
Aldi Christmas Launch Advert 2021–
Sainsburys ‘1914’Christmas 2014 –
Aldi’s 2021 advert is filled with interesting
characters and animations that were created to capture the attention of young
children all over the country. The advert is a short cartoon version of ‘A
Christmas Carol’ but instead of the characters being human, most of them are
fruits and vegetables, Ebenezer Scrooge turned into Ebanana Scrooge. This was
Aldi’s child-friendly tactic to advertise their supermarket’s food, just in
time for Christmas. The advert was targeted to young children because that way
they can sell a lot of merchandise for the advert that kids would be interested
in and ask for as a Christmas gift. Selling these teddy’s will have bought the
brand a lot of income. The advert, however, was not only created to interest
the youngsters. It was also made to lure in adults so they would buy their Christmas
dinner and festive treats from their shops. I think Aldi using a story that
everybody knows and most like (A Christmas Carol) was really smart because they
already had the advantage of knowing people like it. Then it was also pretty genius
because people were going to be talking about the plant-based remake online
since its humorous but also spreads a positive message of being nice and
spreading kindness which, in the peak of social media bullying, is an important
message that people will respect Aldi for spreading. Aldi making a light advert
that’s just some gentle watching is a nice contrast the usual Christmas adverts
that take us on a roller coaster of emotions. I liked that they used an instrumental
version of ‘Fairy tale of New York’ as their song because it kept it upbeat and
it’s a song that all of England loves but yet you don’t hear very often in the advertisement
industry. It even makes the less positive parts seem friendly and fun. The advert
was only 1 minuet 20 so it was short and snappy which allowed children to watch
and enjoy it without getting distracted and losing interest. At the end of the advert
the Aldi logo comes up and underneath it reads “we are donating 1.8 million
meals to families in need this Christmas.” This was a clever idea because after
telling everyone else to treat people with kindness, they presented what they’ve
done to be kind so now more people will shop at Aldi because they’ll say that
some of the money, they spend there is donated to charity and think of Aldi as
a nice brand. It is a good way to make people feel like they are doing a good thing
for others by shopping there.
Sainsburys 2014 Christmas advert ‘1914’ is
an emotional advert about Christmas World War 1. It’s based on a true story of
the WW1 Christmas truce. In the advert it starts with a young English man
opening his presents sent from home on Christmas eve. He receives a chocolate
bar which is a huge treat, and he puts it in his coat pocket. Then soldiers of
Germany from a different trench start to sing silent night. Then the other
trenches join in. Then the next day (Christmas day, an English soldier comes
out of the trenches with his hands upholding his hat and once people realise
that its harmless, everybody else comes out of their trenches onto no mans
land. They all meet and introduce themselves to each other, showing them
pictures of people who they left at home. Then a ball comes out and they all
start playing football. Soon bombs start to hit again and they must leave but
first Jim (the one who first came out of the trenches) gave his jacket to Otto
(the boy who he first introduced himself to). They all went back to their trenches
filled with joy because of the day they had, however, they were also filled with
sadness because the day had to end and they knew the devastating war would
resume. When Otto put his hand in his pocket he was surprised to find a
chocolate bar that Jim had left for him and then in big writing the words ‘Christmas
is for sharing’ comes up on the screen. I think this whole advert is very
beautiful. It’s a very emotional advert that really makes us (the audience) appreciate
everything the soldiers did for their countries and it also makes us grateful
for the Christmas we have and how most of us can just go to shops like Sainsburys
whenever we like and it wont mean anything to us. After “Christmas is for
sharing” comes on the screen the Sainsburys logo came on, then after that “made
in partnership with the royal British legion” come on with their logo and the
red poppy. This shows how Sainsburys themselves have shared at Christmas, they
donated £3.4 million to the royal British legion which helped many people. When
watching the 3:41 minuet advert, you swell with emotions, pride, sadness, gratefulness
and the urge to go out and share our joy. This advert wasn’t created to sell
any particular item. It was made so that people would talk about the
super-market and they would get more publicity and it definitely did, just
googling the advert you get news articles and websites with lots of reviews. One
review stated, “Let’s be realistic, this is the best Christmas advert ever
created and can never be topped.” And another
read “I’d have no objection to Sainsbury’s just reusing this advert every year.
We are all here 7 years later, it’s timeless.” These comments are just a few
out of thousands and they show how although the advert is educational its still
very capturing to watch, you really can’t look away. One thing that is quite
unique that I really, really love about the advert is that there isn’t an
emotional song slapped on the top forcing you to feel something, you can hear
everything that’s happening, you can hear the soldiers talking and laughing and
shouting, you can hear the bombs going off and it’s the soldiers that are
singing the song silent night. I think all of this really makes the whole
advert feel authentic and more personal which really helps you connect with the
characters. Then at the end the tune of the end of the song one the piano, it
really closes off the advert with a sweet note.
Both adverts were created with intentions
of spreading a positive message and donated to people in need however they were
extremely different. Both of these adverts feel like a movie with a clear beginning,
middle and end. They were both created to entertain their audience and take
them on a journey rather than sell a new item or just have someone voiceover
that their shop has the freshest potatoes with a video of a happy family. Aldi’s
advert is less serious and more like some childish fun, it’s filled with jokes and
playful animations with different colours on the screen to entertain. Whereas
Sainsburys advert is based off a more important topic that effected a lot of
people. This advert was meant to stick with people and make them feel proud and
also sad. It is quite a melancholy advert that carries a very important story. Everybody
already knew the storyline to both adverts, so it was just a matter of how they
adapted them. I think the Sainsburys advert is a cinematic masterpiece, you can
see all the attention to detail that the creators thought about from costume to
set to the accent and appearance of their actors. If there’s one thing, I could
change it would be the line that says, “Christmas is for sharing.” Because after
the whole advert one soldier sharing his gift with another isn’t the main thing,
I took away from it, I would’ve written “Christmas is for creating memories
that’ll last a lifetime” or something along those lines but I know that they
wrote sharing because they were donating money and they wanted to give an
example of their own. I also thought that Aldi’s advert was really good and
entertaining for its targeted young audience. I think its fun and exciting and
enjoyed by a lot of people. However, I do think that you can tell they’ve tried
to speed up the story to sum it up in the short few minuets they have to try
and make it makes sense. Both were brilliant adverts that finished on a
positive note in comparison to the beginning, Aldi’s finished with everything
right and okay whereas, Sainsbury’s advert doesn’t end with anything being
better, but things were happier and more hopeful at the end. I loved this from both
adverts, I think it reinforces the Christmas spirit in both.
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