It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Part 1

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Part 1

John Lewis – Shadows (2007)

Written by Aaron Bootland

Shadows is not one of john Lewis’ most well-known Christmas adverts out there, primarily because it came out well before the ‘hype train’ that shows up before an ad was a thing. It is still just as amazing and inspiring as the other ads that have come around since then, but it is far less well-known. It can be seen as being far more advertiser friendly than the more modern ads they are putting out, focusing on finding products rather than some deep inner thing they have people looking for now.

The major focus point, as stated above, is products, which is an uncommon thing now for John Lewis, who focus more on the people and the personalities that show up around Christmas, however this advert was released before that was there thing. The advert is quite simple in its essence, not much going on in the background or foreground, focusing more on the shadows that appear as more and more objects are placed in the path of a bright light. As the objects are placed they cast a shadow on the wall behind the set, eventually forming the appearance of a woman walking a do, complete with Christmas star and confetti snow. In this way, I think it is a simple yet effective way of selling more than just a brand, as they are want to do now. It sells the products instead of the people. There is even a moment when the camera zooms in on a young girl placing a pink box, but catches the front of a mac pro, which is obviously done as product placement.



Zooming in on the Mac Pro

The advert is a standalone in the sense that it is the only advert I’ve ever seen John Lewis make that doesn’t have some deep inner meaning. It simply says that whatever you wanna buy, you can find at John Lewis. It also embodies an anti-realist narrative, in that it is highly unlikely that a bunch of products will just come together to form a human shape. It can also be seen as having a somewhat humorous side to it, at one point an elderly lady comes on to pose with a champagne flute, gets a nod from another woman, and places the flute down on the pile of products. It isn’t exactly comedy gold, but in terms of the advert, it certainly seems to have had some thought put into it. The music design also seems to be somewhat well thought out, as the music seems to have been made specifically for the advert, instead of just taking a famous song and covering it like they do now. There is no real discernible sound design as there is very little sound, apart from the music in the background. The lighting is fantastic, and it needs to be so the shadows will look their best on the wall. It’d be a bit daft if an advert about shadows had crappy looking lighting, y’know?

The shadows create a background image

In terms of techniques used in the ad, there isn’t much going on for the cinematography. The camera moves around on a crane for the most part, occasionally zooming in on specific things, logos for instance, and finally stopping while being fully zoomed in on the shadow creation at the end of the ad. With the advert only being just over a minute long, there isn’t much room for creativity with the camera, which is unfortunate, as it would have been cool to see what they could do if they incorporated it into the shadows, ah well. There aren’t really any hidden messages in the ad either, as they give you the point of the ad at the very end, ‘whoever you’re looking for this Christmas’. The advert is obviously trying to give the viewer the solution to a problem that everyone has at Christmas, what to get someone. It does this by showing certain objects throughout the ad that might appeal to a large audience, jewellery boxes, new computers, that kind of thing. I believe the advert succeeds in trying to make the audience desire these new products, through using the creative medium of shadow puppetry to portray that only at John Lewis can you find what you’re looking for, I think it is a very fun and creative choice.

The final shot of the advert

The target audience for this advert is very clearly people who are looking for something to buy for someone at Christmas time, which is pretty much, everyone on earth. Quite a large audience then, eh? Well I think that the target audience can be broken down even further. I would say that just from looking at the advert once you can see it is aimed at middle aged adults, people who would probably have children and jobs, people who can afford to go to John Lewis and splash out on their friends and family. But it is most importantly aimed at people who can’t decide what to buy someone, and this is from the tagline at the end of the ad, ‘Whoever you’re looking for this Christmas’. It wouldn’t be aimed at younger people because, not only will they not find it a very entertaining ad; they also more than likely won’t be able to get the full spectacle of the shadow puppetry. If an adult was to watch this ad, then at the end they might say something like, ‘Oh hey, that was pretty interesting’, which would cause it to stick in their minds for a while, or at least until they do their Christmas shopping.