As December comes into full swing, we find ourselves truly deep within Christmas advert season. The tear-jerkers are out in full effect. I find myself swept up in a world where a single father builds a real-life snow globe, only to discover I’m not watching a five-minute play in between Modern Family reruns but am actually being presented with an advert for Amazon Prime.
Today, the hyper-commercialisation of Christmas is very well known, to the point that many of us just take the onslaught of the Christmas adverts and have given up trying to think of links they have to the products being sold. However, this short film style advert, while old, has only recently had its resurgence – restarted when the Christmas advert maestros, John Lewis, released their Christmas ad titled ‘The Long Wait’ in 2011. Prior to that, short film styles had been introduced in the 1980s, with snappy, often humorous adverts starring quintessential British family Christmas celebrations and served with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Soon they fell back out of fashion, with the 90s and 2000s supermarkets displaying the products instead of a plot.
Now, Christmas adverts, aside from being filled with feelgood Christmas music, are filled with a heart-moving plot, designed to connect with an audience. Narratives are far more likely to inspire the human mind than a list of products being read out to us by an automated voice. Biologically, when a human sees or reads a story, their brain goes into overdrive, triggering the language processing parts of the brain (Broca’s and Wernicke’s area) to provide context. This context then allows us to associate the subject matter with personal experiences, and tie the two together, in a process known as neuro-coupling. This process even extends to your sensory cortex, so that when you see a character of the TV step outside in the glistening white snow, you can almost feel the biting cold yourself, or imagine the soft cracking of ice beneath your feet. The ‘happy hormone’ oxytocin floods your brain, and the adverts becomes tied into your long-term memory. In other words, it’s ideal for the marketing behind the advert. For example, whenever you see a snow globe, you now think about how a father made his son happy, and by proxy: Amazon Prime.
Now, supermarkets recognise the precedent Christmas adverts have set: the UK has made its own version of Superbowl adverts. In an interview with Marie Claire, a John Lewis executive stated, “the anticipation of the advertising has become a phenomenon, but this kind of build-up only works if that ad is of the highest quality.” In other words, if John Lewis doesn’t keep up this rigorous film style expectations it has set for itself, audiences will be left disappointed, and that may perhaps subconsciously impact their Christmas shopping for that year. A far-reaching and impactful Christmas advert is incredibly necessary for companies like John Lewis, whose products are seen as a luxury for many. Therefore, if they see an advert which personally connects with them, they are more likely to splurge the extra cash. If a film-style advert doesn’t work, the company are set to lose millions.
John Lewis had indeed such high expectation for our Christmas adverts that they have become an annual tradition, easily memorable stories, perfect to be shared on social media. Good or bad, these adverts are a clear demonstration of how advertisers manipulate the holidays and our psyches to make sure we have a gift-filled Christmas.
