It's that time of the year again, CHRISTMAS!!! And with that means The Return of the King, Christmas adverts. I have always loved these, from John Lewis' gut-wrenchingly pleasing adverts that we all look forward to seeing each year then forgetting about immediately, to Sainsbury's who are the crowning achievement of how to make the best Christmas adverts ever, even making James Cordon actually bearable for once for their 2016 advert. Growing up when I was younger, if there was one advert I would look forward to each year, it would be Toys R US' who always knew how to corrupt every parents bank account every Christmas season.
The advert I have chosen whilst one I didn't grow up on becuase it released in 2009, is one that played a part in all of the other adverts I would grow up to see each year. The advert released as previously mentioned in 2009 celebrating it's 25th Christmas in the UK. This is a digital remake of the same advert that originally released in 1989 because of its sheer recognisability and popularity. Whereas the original advert was pretty much targeted towards children, this advert has both something for children and adults. The adverts song is very catchy and many of the lines play a huge part into why I'm discussing this as my chosen Christmas advert. Calling the store a magical place with millions of toys feel as though were visiting Santa's Grotto and that there will be vast shelves upon shelves full of toys for their young minds to stare at in amaze. This can even be heard with the lines saying the store has everything from books, board games to bikes, to teddys, puppets and dolls and even bikes, spaceships and trikes, there is a sense of wonder and mystery that will excite children and hype them up for Christmas. The store has everything they need for the leadup to Christmas and they can be relied on to make every child's Christmas a 'merry' one.
Looking at it from one perspective, it looks like greedy, persuasive marketing to force parents to take their kids to Toys R US, an already expensively priced store, during one of the most busiest, chaotic times of the year to drain as much money out of their wallets/purses. However, the advert also has something for parents. Since they are the ones who probably grew up on the original advert, hearing that cosy song and seeing the same advert from their childhood now looking fresh will remind them of the positive, gleeful times they had growing up young during the festive season. Gillian Dyer would say the advert does this through its nostalgic appeal in hopes for these parents to return and let their children explore and enjoy carefree so they can make the most out of their Christmas and later look back fondly in memory. It's telling the parents Toys R US is Christmas and if they don't take their children, then they won't have as many memories to look back at unlike them. There is no real enlightening message here, just huge corporations telling us consumerism will make your children happy, but isn't that what Christmas is all about. We see it in films like Jingle All The Way and they are still looked back with nostalgia, although after watching it again this year since last seeing it a few years ago, that film is quite awful and not as good as I remember it being.
Happy Christmas and its good to see Toys R US is returning again (hopefully this doesn't age poorly).
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