Advert Analysis
John Lewis produced this advert for their 2015 #ManOnTheMoon campaign. The advert follows the story of a little girl who discovers a man living on the moon and proceeds to try and send presents to him. It follows the 'typical' John Lewis style in that it's only aim is to trigger an emotional response from the audience.
This advert is an anti-realist narrative as it very much shows something that doesn't happen every day. It is a very far fetched and unrealistic story. The genre is drama. This is very clear through the structure and the way the advert is filmed & edited. The shots/scenes are very slow paced and do not have any fast paced cutting between them. Camera angles also imply a dramatic style too. One shot in particular which stands out as dramatic is the close up of the old man's eyes. The way it was shown (i.e the detail, lighting etc.) made it a very emotional and saddening shot to look at.
The advert, similarly to many other John Lewis adverts, didn't show any product which the company offers (other than the telescope which became available after the advertisement's release). The only thing it advertises is simply the John Lewis brand itself. However this is seen as a controversial approach because many people believe that the content of the advert has nothing to do with the brand whatsoever. This is mostly true because the advert is just telling a story to entertain people and then showing the John Lewis logo at the end which will promote and make people remember the brand. Some people also think it is wrong for John Lewis to create an advert which takes advantage of people's emotions because they are manipulating them.
The advert was made in partnership with Age UK as a way to raise awareness about elderly people alone at Christmas. The tag line is 'Show Someone They're Loved This Christmas'. This can be seen as a very positive message and a good way share it because John Lewis was already an established brand before this advert. Audience have come to expect a John Lewis Christmas advert every year and because people know what to expect the video has over 23 million views on YouTube, never mind the people who saw it on TV. However, many people also saw this as a negative because, although John Lewis was a huge platform for Age UK, the charity side of the advert seemed to be minimal and there was nothing informing the viewers of the connection.
As I said before, John Lewis already had a reputation before this advert as they had released Christmas adverts every year since 2007. Each of these adverts have been similar as they all emotionally engage audiences. By now John Lewis are very aware of their target audience and can create adverts to suit them. Their target audience very much varies in age and there is no specific. The adverts are suited more to people who are more easily effected by media and advertisement as their aim is to get a response from the audience. It is also obviously suited to people who are going to be buying Christmas presents. John Lewis can be considered quite expensive so the advert is also more aimed at people who are willing to spend more money on Christmas.
The use of #ManOnTheMoon in the advert is a very good marketing technique by John Lewis as people will go straight to social media to talk about the advert. Giving them a hash tag means that most people talking about it will use it and that will lead to #ManOnTheMoon trending on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The hash tag has no link to John Lewis on its own but when people see it it will stand out and they will click on it to read more. When they do so they will see lots of statuses/tweets about the brand.
One of the most important parts of pre-production on advertisements is research. John Lewis would want to do all the research they can to make the best advert possible. The best place they could go would be BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board). BARB is the central place for research when it comes to TV, they collect all the statistics and viewing ratings of TV every day for every UK channel. John Lewis would also do their own research, looking at previous adverts to see what has worked and what hasn't worked in the past and also getting people to take questionnaires about current advertising or gathering focus groups to get feedback.
Before being televised, this advert, like every other, will have had to be regulated by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). The ASA's work includes acting on complaints and checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. This John Lewis advert did nothing to violate the rules however if it had it wouldn't be put on TV. Sometimes an advert can receive complaints after being aired or the ASA can notice that it is coming off offensive or harmful and can order the advertiser to take the ad down.
A recurring theme in John Lewis' Christmas adverts is the use of cover songs. Every year they use a cover of a song rather than the original. 2015's was a cover of Oasis' 'Half The World Away' sang by Aurora. Not only does this give the advert a unique sound, it also allows John Lewis and the cover artist to sell the song as their own, hopefully getting into the charts. The previous year's song got up to number 7 in the UK charts. Having a song in the charts gives people yet another indirect link to John Lewis, promoting the brand yet again.
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