I'm happy to say that, it's that time of year again! The John Lewis Christmas advert is here!
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The ad typically fails to leave a dry eye amongst viewers however the message behind this years advert could be perceived as strange and somewhat risky, in terms of PR. Read on to discover ways in which I think this years Christmas ad could be improved and don't miss the end of todays post to see a great example of reactive PR on Iceland's Twitter page.
3 areas to improve (from a Public Relations perspective):
1) There is an astronomical amount of media attention on the 'climate crisis' as discussed in more depth in my previous blog post. There has also been a lot of coverage on Jeff Bezos' recent space travel and the amount of CO2 emissions released as a result. Therefore, the mysterious alien infiltrating earth has ominous implications. Perhaps a friendlier creature in the first place would have been more suitable for the advert, avoiding depressing topical issues to connote the caring brand connotations of John Lewis paralleled with one of their values "We Not Me".
2) There is imagery of a child running through the forest on their own. This risk could escalate into an issue if it encourages children to go off on their own in the woods. Alternatively the advert could depict the alien crashing in to the garden of the families home, the alien is taken in and shown the experience of family festivities and traditions and implies the brand is thoughtful and inclusive. This would align with John Lewis' 'shared commitment to go above and beyond for each other and their customers.' Honestly the alien imagery made more sense once I noticed this play on words.
3) Finally, the end message of the advert is "For a Christmas As Magical As Your First" this in my opinion is a strange message because the alien did not experience any of the traditional parts of Christmas, like sharing gifts and togetherness, as the alien was isolated from everyone apart from the little boy. However, I do like the connotations of magic as it aligns with the magical experience of visiting John Lewis stores during the festive season.They succeed in the use of ambient media and experiential marketing in my opinion, by investing in the ambience of the store. (A peer of mine has previously done a blog post on experiential marketing.)
As promised I wanted to share the comedic responses from Icelands social media marketers on Twitter who exemplified 'newsjacking' which is a type of reactive PR. They made fun of the surprising feature of the ad by replacing the face of the extraterrestrial with space raider potato chips with the strap line 'Eat an Alien.'
Overall, I still enjoyed this years Christmas advert perhaps I'm biased due to my love for John Lewis at Christmas time. What did you think of this years Christmas advert? Let me know in the comments.