Rather than talk to an expert on advertising or waffle on incoherently myself, I thought I’d give my mum a call. The following conversation touches on everything from storytelling techniques, brand awareness, the use of emotion, serious thematic elements, but surprisingly nothing about how I forgot to send an anniversary card last month.
Today is either the most wonderful day of the advertising calendar, or one where your misanthropy is put to the ultimate test.
Yes, it’s the unleashing of the annual John Lewis Christmas advert. You’ll have seen it already, so the only reason why I’m embedding it below is to break up the text a little bit. #JournalismSecretsExposed
Now I’m a horrible cynic, and this morning I pledged that I would try and spend the next two months avoiding it. But then I realised something… it’s not for me. It’s not for a miserable 35 year-old working in media surrounded by equally curmudgeonly misery-guts in a brightly-lit office overlooking a busy Hammersmith junction.
It’s for people like my mum, a nice person, totally free from snark and irony, who works in a Shropshire agricultural supply company specialising in crop care and animal health.
So for comment, rather than talk to an expert on advertising or waffle on incoherently/spitefully myself, I thought I’d give my mum a call.
The following conversation touches on everything from storytelling techniques, brand awareness, the use of emotion, serious thematic elements, but surprisingly nothing about how I forgot to send an anniversary card last month.
Me: Hi mum, it’s me. Your son.
Mum: Oh hello!
Me: Do you have 10 minutes free?
Mum: I can have.
Me: This is going to sound a bit weird, but do you have any way of watching the new John Lewis advert at work?
Mum: I don’t know, I’ll ask the boss.
[whispers to boss]
Yep that’s fine. It’s not going to make me cry is it?
Me: Well that’s why I’m ringing. I’m doing a little article about it, and I thought I’d interview my mum and see what her reaction is to it.
Mum: I see. It probably won’t have any sound.
Me: Well just imagine the song ‘Half the World Away’ by Oasis but made even more mawkish by some terribly winsome pixie. Has it started?
Mum: It’s doing that ‘whirly’ thing.
Me: Sure…
[some minutes pass]
Me: Are you watching it?
Mum: Yes.
Me: It’s the one with the man on the moon yeah?
Mum: Yes.
Me: Is there any sound?
Mum: Yes.
Me: You seem very quiet.
[nothing]
Are you crying?
Mum: Yes.
Me: [laughter] Well that is what it’s meant to do.
[the video has ended]
Are you genuinely touched?
Mum: Yes.
Me: Oh mum. Well I’m going to ask you some questions about the advert now. Okay?
Mum: Okay.
Me: How do you feel about John Lewis after watching that advert?
Mum: It makes you think of John Lewis kindly, like they’re caring.
Me: Would it steer you into their store or website over perhaps another department store?
Mum: I think it would. If I saw John Lewis I would think “their advert is the one with that old man in it and that shop made that old man happy.”
Me: Do you think it’s interesting how there aren’t really any products in it?
Mum: Yes, it’s not actually telling you to buy anything specific, just that you should buy it from them.
Me: Do you not feel… and bearing in mind you know me and how cynical I can be about, uh, everything… do you not feel manipulated by the advert?
Mum: No. Well unless it’s doing it in a very subtle way.
Me: It made you cry, mum.
Mum: [laughter] Yes and to be honest all John Lewis Christmas adverts make me cry.
Me: Have you ever had that emotional reaction to other, non-John Lewis adverts?
Mum: No I don’t think I have. It just seems to be John Lewis. They just have a specific way of touching your emotions.
Me: Did you have the same feeling last year when you saw the John Lewis penguin advert?
Mum: Yes, but maybe not in the same way. Because this one has a little girl and an old man in it, it’s a bit more emotionally real. Old people are neglected in reality, and this shows someone actually bothering with them. People are more relatable than a cuddly penguin toy or a cartoon bear.
Me: It also touches on very serious themes, neglect, apathy towards older people, loneliness, mortality…
Mum: That underlying note isn’t a bad thing.
Me: Do you think you’ll go out of your way to watch that advert again?
Mum: Yes. And I would probably tell other people to watch it too.
Me: As I work in the marketing industry I’m acutely aware of the tradition that the John Lewis Christmas advert has become. It’s a big thing in digital marketing and in advertising. But you’re a normal person, with a normal job, so are you as aware of the tradition too? Did you feel a sense of hype surrounding it?
Mum: If you hadn’t said about it today, I wouldn’t have known. But in a couple of weeks I would have thought “oooh, I wonder if the new John Lewis advert has come out yet?”
Me: What about… oh hang on, I’ve forgotten what I was going to ask… [makes weird mouth noise] … oh balls, it’s totally gone out of my mind. I’m not very good at doing interviews.
Mum: Is that why you’re interviewing your mum for this?
Me: Of course not! Oh wait, I remember now… What do you think the John Lewis advert does differently to other adverts? Why is it so different? Why do you have the reaction you have?
Mum: It’s partly the tradition… it’s like the Coca-Cola lorry, it reminds you that Christmas is coming and that things are getting particularly family orientated.
Me: What about the structure of the John Lewis adverts though?
Mum: They’re very easy to watch because they tell an actual story, and that story is very clear, but there’s also an underlying theme. Other adverts don’t do that. It’s like watching a little film. Especially as they’re always filmed really nicely too.
Me: And you’re conscious of the difference between that other product-led, non-story based adverts?
Mum: Oh definitely. What else I find is… you know when they sometimes shorten the adverts? I feel like I’ve missed out on something. I’m cheated out of the full story.
Me: Like if you watched Jurassic Park on the telly and they took out 30 minutes from the middle?
Mum: Exactly!
Me: That’s really interesting Mum. Thanks very much for talking to me. I’m sorry I made you cry at work.
Mum: My boss is laughing at me.
Me: Well tell him not to be such a hard-hearted cynic.
Mum: I will!
There we are. I hope we all learned something today. Next week I’m going to interview the CEO of John Lewis about crop care and animal health.
