Nielsen Pantaleoni

Caroline Nielsen Pantaleoni

English 120-01
Professor Bruner
06/03/2015
More Than Just Christmas Spirit
There is always a reason or a purpose behind the production
of an advertisement or commercial. The usual goals of such
advertisements consist of increasing sales of certain products,
increasing brand awareness, or looking to reach out to other
customer bases with the promotion. Firms have become increasingly
able to effectively reach out to their market, and persuade their
customers to buy their products due to their improved marketing
abilities and powerful advertisement campaigns. According to an
article by Ewald Berkers, With advertising emphasizing only the
positive aspects of products, one might forget that not only are
there also negative aspects, but a product might not even be what
we really want or need. (Berkers 2015)
When looking at a specific example of an advertisement such
as the John Lewis Christmas commercial, it showed us Montys
version of a perfect Christmas. This is a great example in showing
the effect this commercial had on product sales as they increased
by 300% on eBay. Also, according to an article on Thedrum, The
love for Monty is so much that one of the John Lewis toys was re-

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sold on eBay for 499 (Mcleod 2014). The two main characters
within this commercial are a little boy called Sam and his best
friend, Monty, a penguin. At this point, I feel like the audience was
very able to relate to this situation because, we all love the
Christmas spirit, and we all have a best friend with whom we do
everything. As the advert goes on, we to discover that Monty is
lonely as he sees couples expressing their love for each other on the
street. Monty is looking for another kind of relationship, a romantic
one. Sam realizes what is happening and decides he wants to help
Monty find his true love this Christmas.
On Christmas day, Sam surprises Monty by giving him the
Christmas present he had been dreaming of, a female penguin. At
this point, we come to realize that they are both stuffed teddy
bears. This goes to show the power of their relationships and the
beauty of love. Sam and Montys relationship comes out to be very
powerful due to the fact that Monty is perceived as a real life
penguin as well as Sams best friend. We see the appreciation and
their relationship bond with the kind gesture Sam demonstrates
when he gives Monty his dream present. This idea of Christmas
spirit would have therefore encouraged people to go out to John
Lewis stores in order to find such present for their significant others
in an attempt to re create that perfect Christmas feeling.
In my opinion, this commercial was aimed at a large market
base because we all look for Christmas presents for our friends,
family and significant others. We all want to re-live Sam and Montys

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experience thus, customers are persuaded to go to the John Lewis
store to buy their products with the aim of re creating that exact
moment we all want to experience with our friends and family at
Christmas. In other words, I believe the target audiences in this
commercial are all the people looking to buy meaningful Christmas
presents. Regarding the socio economic class, the middle class
would seem most relevant due to the fact that they are more likely
to shop in John Lewis stores, where you can find averagely priced
goods with a certain degree of luxury.
As well as this, I believe this commercial was very effective
when looking to pass on the message of the ideal Christmas
situation due to the fact that people all over the word would have
been able to understand and feel the same emotion without being
able to understand English language. Either way, people felt the
same emotional connection. Thus, it was able to reach all corners in
the world with the exact same message, once again, increasing John
Lewiss customer base and sales. In my opinion, I experienced
several emotional reactions to the pathos created with Sam and
Montys ideal relationship. The story within the commercial is
positive as we come to realize that Monty has found what he was
looking for and was therefore happy during Christmas. The heavy
pathos in my opinion is lifted when Monty saw the female penguin.
Also, we see in several other commercials the effective use of
pathos with emotion as well as the use of cute animals. Animals
have the power to evoke not only pathos, but also ethos, which

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consist of the spirit of what we believe in and our aspirations.
Animals cannot control what they feel or the emotions they are
going through, they arent able to act or fake expressions like actors
are able to. This means that when they are upset and have a real
problem, we, as an audience feel an urge to help them. This is why
animals are often used in advertisements; they are able to create
raw emotion and sensations. We all want to be the one giving or
receiving the Christmas presents people have been dreaming of.
The best gifts all come from our hearts and this advertisement
suggests that you can find this in John Lewis stores. In addition, to
further show the power this commercial has had, we now find
Montys den in John Lewis shops, where you can take a photo with
him and find out more about his Christmas story.
To conclude, we see that the aims of this commercial were
achieved when we know what Craig Ingliss (marketing director at John
Lewis) intentions were and how they were achieved: We hope this uplifting
tale of Sam's love for his friend Monty will remind people of the magic of
Christmas through a child's eyes and inspire them to think how they can make
the festive season extra special for their friends and loved ones. (Ingli
November 6 2014)". Finally, one of the most powerful tools used in this
commercial in my opinion is the tone setting and emotional music playing in
the background. Real Love by Tom Odell perfectly shows and compliments
Sam and Montys Christmas story. It illiterates once again something we are
all looking for and want desperately, the concept of real love and the feelings
that come with it. This further contributes to the urge and influence of

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persuading the customer. This allows the customer to directly relate John
Lewis products with the ideas of real love and a perfect Christmas.

Works Cited
Berkers, Ewald. "The Influence of Advertising." The Influence of
Advertising.
Unenticed.com, 2015u. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Macleod, Ishbel. "John Lewis Christmas Ad Sees Sale of Penguin Toys

up
300% on EBay." The Drum. Thedrum, 21 Nov. 2014. Web. 25
Feb. 2015.

Nudd, Tim. "Ad of the Day: John Lewis May Have Already Won
Christmas With Its
Adorable Penguin Ad." AdWeek. Adweek, 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 25
Feb. 2015.

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Reflection Letter
In my opinion, the hardest part in writing this essay was
getting my ideas down whilst also trying to be clear and maintaining
a good, flowing essay structure. I felt like I had a lot to say about the
advertisement, but I had to ensure the ideas were organized and
clear. At first, I was unsure as to whether I should summarize the
advertisement or solely analyze it. In the end, I decided to do both
so that I could ensure that the reader knew what my advertisement
was about before getting into the analysis. During the brainstorm

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stage, I had a lot of ideas. I started off by writing all my ideas down,
and then with the next drafts, I made sure the essay made sense
and flowed well. This was the most significant change I made after
revising my first draft.
The feedback I received was mainly positive apart from the
works cited page and how I had to organize my citations in
alphabetical order. With more time, I would have liked to be able to
analyze different parts of the advertisement to further detail as well
as explore different areas, which I hadnt mentioned. The peer
review also allowed me to read other essays and see what other
peoples strengths and weaknesses were, to hopefully learn from
them and apply the strengths to my essay.
I found this essay more challenging than my This I believe
essay, however, I really enjoyed writing it and thinking of ways I
could analyze the advertisement from different points of view. I
think that the best part of my paper is the range of analysis
provided. I tried to focus on different areas so that I could give
different perspectives as well as detailed explanations. Furthermore,
I also tried to convey a lot of emotion from the advertisement
through to my reader in order to get the reader involved and thus,
be able to understand my explanations. My intentions with this were
to engage the reader and therefore, make him/her want to read on.