Nielsen Pantaleoni

Caroline Nielsen Pantaleoni

English 120-01
Professor Bruner
01/03/2015
Draft 1
More Than Just Christmas Spirit
There is always a reason or a purpose behind the production
of an advertisement or commercial. 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 resold on eBay for 499 (Mcleod 2014). The two main characters
within this commercial are a little boy called Sam and his best

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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.
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
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

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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
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. 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

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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.

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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