It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Part 2

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Part 2

John Lewis – Monty the Penguin (2014)

Written by Aaron Bootland

Monty the penguin is not my favourite John Lewis ad out there, I personally think it’s a bit on the nose for what it’s trying to portray. Appearing after John Lewis had become the Christmas ads instead of a department store, it follows suit with the previous ads by being about an idea rather than about selling products. It tries to sell the idea of being in love over Christmas, of being with someone rather than having to spend Christmas alone.

The major focus point of the ad is, of course, Monty the Penguin, a lonely little penguin who is clearly a mutant as no penguin should be able to survive in the warm climates around where the child lives. Anyway, Monty is a lonely penguin without a girlfriend, seeking love from someone other than the child he lives with. The advert follows Monty and his child owner around their day to day life in the run up to Christmas, with Monty becoming more and more distracted with things like; seeing a couple kissing, or seeing a romantic film on TV. This is showing that Monty is becoming distracted by being alone, and is in need of someone to share his love with. The ad goes on to show that the child notices Monty acting strange and decides to get Monty a girlfriend penguin for Christmas. On Christmas morning the child wakes Monty up and leads him downstairs to the living room, where there is another penguin waiting in a box for him. Monty rushes over and embraces his new girlfriend, at which point the child’s mother comes in and it turns out that Monty was just a toy penguin, now all dirty from being played with so much, and the same goes for the new penguin. It is clear that this advert is similar to many other John Lewis ads in that it wasn’t made to sell products, rather to sell John Lewis as a brand name. the tagline ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’, is clearly in reference to the fact that the child in the ad was simply dreaming that Monty was alive, but could also be construed to imply that only at John Lewis can you find the gift someone really wants. This enforces the idea that it isn’t trying to sell individual products, but rather the John Lewis name.

The advert's tagline

The advert employs a somewhat realist narrative, in that many children see things like teddies and toys as being real and alive at a young age. It could also be an anti-realist narrative in that, like I stated earlier, a penguin wouldn’t be able to survive in the climates the child can, and also toys aren’t real. It is a standalone ad in that it is the only advert I’ve seen John Lewis make about Monty the penguin. The music has very clearly been chosen specifically for the advert, talking about love and being with someone, while the penguin wants love and hasn’t got anyone to share it with. Once again there isn’t really much sound design, as the music somewhat blocks it out.  The use of computer generated effects is obvious in the penguin. As the ad was made in 2014, it doesn’t look like real life just yet, it’s clear that Monty is CGI.

The obviously CGI penguin

The advert doesn’t really employ any hidden messages, as it gives away the meaning of the advert at the end of the video, ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’. It does, however, employ the use of emotional association. It tries to target people who don’t have someone to share their love with at Christmas, like Monty, and tries to make the audience feel compassion for him, and implies that you can find something for people like this by shopping at John Lewis. It implies that the solution to this problem can be found at John Lewis stores. The advert also seems to imply that the main advantage of shopping at John Lewis is that you can find literally anything you need for literally anyone, and give them the Christmas they’re dreaming of.

In terms of techniques used by the advert, there once again isn’t much going on in terms of camera work. The camera is panning around a little then stopping. There isn’t much going on in terms of editing either. The cuts don’t seem to happen in sync with anything in particular, and they don’t seem to pick up in speed at any point to increase the speed of the advert. It is all round a fairly long, slow advert.

The target audience for this advert is actually probably people of a young age, as the penguin is made to look quite cute so as to appeal to a younger audience. This might have been done to try and bring more people into the John Lewis stores through their children, or it could have been done to try and make people want to buy the Monty plush dolls that went on sale as part of this ad. However, the target audience could also be older people who would see the tagline and read between the lines more so than a younger audience, and see what the advert is trying to imply rather than show.