Christmas Adverts have become an integral part of Christmas tradition for most. People wait in anticipation to see which company will make the best one this year, with the John Lewis adverts usually taking first place. But what makes Christmas adverts so powerful?
Usually Christmas adverts adopt certain techniques to influence people into buying their products. Christmas adverts can leave a significant effect on consumers, especially regarding purchasing decisions. These adverts often use emotional tactics to persuade consumers into buying a product; it can be anything from making people feel happy and festive to using nostalgia to tap into people's memories.
The competitive nature of these adverts can put huge pressure on advertisers to deliver something new and eye-catching that will pull on consumers' heart strings, and additionally, that will make them spend money. John Lewis is a great example of this: traditionally, John Lewis has historically been seen as an expensive shop, but their festive adverts position the brand as offering little Christmas treats, which encourages people who wouldn't normally shop there to treat someone they love at John Lewis this year. Ever since John Lewis released its first televised Christmas advert in 2007, the British public have been captured by big budget seasonal campaigns. During an emotional time of year when we spend time reconnecting with friends and family, sentimental advertisements have a huge emotional effect on us.
The 1914 Sainsbury's ad toppled John Lewis' back in 2014, with the advert receiving 24 million views on youtube alone. The commercial retells the story of Christmas Day in 1914, when opposing British and German soldiers emerged from their trenches to exchange gifts and play football. In the advert, a British soldier hears German troops singing ‘Silent Night’ and tentatively ventures into the barbed wire of ‘no-man’s land’, before soldiers from both sides join him and shake hands. After a game of football, the British soldier secretly slips a gift into the pocket of a German soldier, who unwraps it to find a chocolate bar when he returns to his side of the battlefield.
While the advertisement obviously seeks to draw shoppers into Sainsbury’s, it doesn't necessarily take away the power the advert holds. The advert was criticized by many of the British public for being distasteful and disrespectful, as the ad uses a historical event as a marketing ploy to get people to shop with them.The advertisement focused on the chocolate bars Sainbury’s sold during the 2014 Christmas season, the proceeds of which went to the Royal British Legion, who sell poppies during remembrance.
While it may not be the most historically accurate account, the advertisement demonstrates that over Christmas 1914, there was still considerable hope amongst the opposing soldiers. Hope that the war would be over before too long and hope that normal relations between neighbors could be reestablished before too long. Finally, the advertisement reminds us that even in some of the most trying conditions, acts of kindness towards the enemy could and did occur. While the advertisement may perpetuate a myth about a Christmas football match as we don't know if this football match actually happened or not, it implicitly challenges a wider myth that the war was filled with uninterrupted horror. The advert proved to be successful as it is one of the most well known Christmas adverts the British public has had.
Comments