Christmas Advert Task

Christmas Advert Task

During this lecture we were given the task of watching several video clips of Christmas advertisements and answer various questions to do with clips. As we watched the videos we would note down bullet points of what we observed from each clip.

The Questions:

1. What messages are being communicated in each example?

2.  What techniques are used to communicate these messages/how do we read them as having a specific meaning?
3.  What is the relationship between the communicated meaning and the product that the advert is trying to sell?
4. Which advert do you think are the most effective and why?

Clip one: Tesco:

-       Orientated around the idea of 'togetherness'.

-       The sharing idea of Christmas.

-       Focuses on family.

 

Clip two: Asda

-       Focus on 'Mums'.

-       Emphasizing the cheapness of the cost.

-       “Christmas doesn’t just happen by magic, behind Christmas there’s mums, behind mums there’s Asda”.

-       Focuses on family and the stress of Christmas, and how Asda is there to aid us in this pressured but joyful time.

Clip 3: Mark's and Spencer's

-       Element of magic.

-       New clothes and new fashion lines being promoted.

-       Aimed at the middle class audience.

-       Very materialistic.

Clip 4: Lidl

-       Family orientated.

-       'Togetherness' acting as a main theme.

-       Using positive connotations of other stores to promote their own food.

Clip 5: Sainsbury's

-       World War One themed.

-       One of the most famous stories of WWI used to promote their store.

-       'Togetherness', again, plays a big part here.

-       ‘Christmas is for sharing’

-       It's motive is to focus in on the emotions of people.

Which do you believe is the most effective advert?

Each one of the adverts we have looked at typically show evidence of making the viewer's Christmas easier and more practical, most focusing on the family aspect of this. They each are trying to cover the viewers eyes with a veil reflecting how the store has its best interests in the British families. Personally, I think the advert Sainsbury's concocted was the most effective. They used a story of which everyone in Britain is very familiar with, the Christmas Day football game during WWI. It reflects the idea of Christmas bringing everyone together and is conveniently supported by the Poppy campaign, helping the audience to tap into their emotions just a little bit more with the approval sticker of the campaign. I think this advertisement was by far the most memorable advertisement we looked at, thus the most effective in what it was trying to achieve.