The John Lewis 2022 Christmas advert was created in association with children’s charities Action for Children and Who Cares Scotland, its message is about cared-for children and the labour and love of fostering and adoptive parents. It shows a soon-to-be dad learning to skateboard to bond with the young girl, Ellie, who is joining him and his wife in their home. I have chosen to apply Hall's Reception Theory to this advert as it was released very recently and received both positive and negative feedback from the audience, which is the entire point of this theory.
Stuart Hall believes that media products are encoded by the producers that make them and they hope that the audience can decode the messages and take away what was intended, this is called the preferred reading. However, Stuart Hall's reception theory says that some other audience members may take other two other readings. The oppositional readings are when the audience member interprets the media product and absolutely do not take on the messages that the encoder wanted them to. The third reading is the negotiated reading. This is in the middle between the preferred and oppositional reading. This is where an audience member understands the messages and what the producer intended and accepts some of it but rejects other parts of it.
Examples to support the theory:
Stuart Hall describes the preferred reading as when the audience can decode the messages and take away what was intended. This seemed to be the overwhelming response to this advert, as most found it heart-warming, informative and thoughtful. An example of this is a comment underneath the video which reads 'As someone with a background in Social Work, thank you for this. The festive period is the hardest part of the year for so many children and young adults in the care system. They don't need flashy presents, they just want to feel seen, safe and protected, like every other child in the world'. This is a clear reinforcement of the audience taking a preferred reading, they understand the ideologies sent out and are agreeing with what was represented.
A negotiated reading is when an audience member understands the messages intended and accepts some of it but rejects other parts of it. An example of this could be the idea that an audience member may accept what the advert is trying to do, which is to raise awareness for children in care, but reject the representation of the male character in this advert, who appears to be doing nothing truly useful to the whole process when his wife is. Another comment on the video contrasts the previous one and says 'The advert is dependent on tired sit-com cliches. There’s the man-child husband, infantilised and laughed at for his ridiculous antics, and his wife who, in a typically supporting role, does most of the “work” – we see her on the phone, multi-tasking and wrapping the presents'. This demonstrates how this person understands the messages but rejects part of it.
An oppositional reading is when the audience member interprets the media product and absolutely do not take on the messages that the encoder wanted them to. An example of this could be a recurring criticism about the advert which is that it is using the childcare system for the purpose of entertainment or distraction from its true horrors. A comment states that 'I am furious that it adds to the way our commitment to care for the most vulnerable in our society is dissolved through palatable pops of promotional compassion'. He goes on to reinforce this by noting that 'The John Lewis advert carefully avoids this reality, instead creating a fiction where the needs of the cared-for child are obscured by the needy behaviour of the father (yes, it really is all about him). Worse still, it only helps to distract us from the government’s merciless underfunding of the health and care system in the UK'.
The usefulness of the theory:
Perhaps a more useful theory to look at for this advert would be David Gauntlett's theory of identity. This is because it could be said that this ad allows for people watching it, who may have experience with the care system to be able to personally identify with the representations and align with the ideas presented, making them feel acknowledged and recognised at Christmas time.
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