Brand Dig: John Lewis, M&S & Aldi all tackle Christmas in a very different way
In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines.
This week, Harry looks at the wonderful world of Christmas adverts, with John Lewis officially having kicked off the season with its #BusterTheBoxer advert. Taking a more humorous approach than previous years, the internet definitely has its opinions on this shift. In the meantime, M&S and Aldi have also shifted the scope of Christmassy emotions with their ads... So how's that working out for them?
Why John Lewis should be worried this Christmas
Just like the Starbuck’s Christmas cup or the lights on Oxford Street, there are many British people who say the festive season doesn’t start until the John Lewis advert appears on TV. But how did the department store become responsible for Christmas and do they still own it?
Once known for cosy bed covers and sensible slippers, John Lewis has been a mainstay of British shopping for decades. But it wasn’t until 2007 that it began claiming the mantle of announcing Christmas. After a three-year break from TV ads, it released a campaign featuring presents being stacked in a way to form a shadow in the shape of the person they were for. The message being that John Lewis can always help find the right present for the right person. Simple.
But a backlash against too much consumerism saw the adverts take an emotional turn. And we’ve since seen a boy give his parents a gift, a snowman go shopping for a snowwoman, a bear who’d never seen Christmas, a boy finding a partner for his toy penguin, and a girl reach out to a lonely man on the moon. Each year the emotion (created in part by the acoustic cover song) has been ramped up, while the message has become somewhat lost – both about John Lewis and Christmas.
This year, John Lewis has taken a slightly different approach: heartwarming humour. And while the internet is mostly satisfied with its fix of festive emotion, that ad has come under fire. Parents criticised it for accidentally revealing Santa isn’t real, the Wildlife Aid Foundation accused it of encouraging people to put their pets on trampolines, and – as usual – others just created endless parodies.
But perhaps most damaging was the timely parody featuring Clinton and Trump – which already has 400k views – and has the risk of dominating the conversation as it’s picked up by the media. So have we reached peak engagement around the John Lewis Christmas ad?
Why M&S was smart to buck the trend
Just like John Lewis, M&S seen as a British institution. Yet the public have had a somewhat love-hate relationship with the retailer. So there’s no doubt that M&S craves some of the unbridled love and attention that John Lewis gets, but it looks like it might have beaten its rival at its own game: the emotional Christmas advert.
But rather than just creating another Christmas advert that has very little real world relevance, M&S has been smart in turning the attention away from Santa Claus to Mrs Claus. Leaving the rotund, rosy-cheeked housewife imagery behind, the brand depicts Mrs Claus as a stylish and efficient woman who flies a helicopter – named R-DOLF – to deliver a present to a little girl on behalf of her brother.
It’s not so much the storyline – which does deliver a playful and emotional tone – that’s creating buzz, but the timely arrival of Mrs Claus. The advert launched just a few days after the US election, when there was a need for a strong and tenacious woman – and certainly not another male dominated narrative.
Yet even if the advert hadn’t been released in the wake of a gender-dominated election, it’s likely the ad would still have resonated with a public already engaged with challenging stereotypes.
How Aldi made us laugh at ourselves
The success of the heartwarming Christmas advert has encouraged many brands to copy from the John Lewis playbook. But Aldi is taking a different approach. It’s actually poking fun at people’s obsession with the annual festive ad. A risky strategy when there’s so much love for it – but it looks to have paid off.
“Carrot was waiting,” says the voiceover as a quivering carrot sits excitedly on the sofa in front of the TV. “Oh golly! Oh gosh! How exciting is this? The thing he’d been waiting for all through the year was finally happening,” the narrator continues. Unable to contain his excitement, the carrot then blurts out “John Lewis!” before hyperventilating into a paper bag to calm himself down.
The internet could have gone either way. But the playful tone coupled with the common acceptance that it’s quite strange to be so obsessed with a Christmas advert – and the fact that British people are notoriously self-deprecating – meant the advert has been resonating with the public new balance 574 outlet. One Twitter user summed up the genius of the advert when she wrote: “Don't rate John Lewis advert this year it's all about Aldi's Kevin the carrot.”
So with M&S owning heartwarming inspiration and Aldi taking cheeky humour, is there any appetite left for John Lewis’ sentimental emotion this Christmas?
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