It’s CHRISTMAS TIME! Every year since the dawn of time the United Kingdom has been hooked on one singular and momentous event, which steals hearts, souls and produces an abundance of tears across the nation: Is it the Olympics? Is it Children in need? Of course not! It’s the Christmas Advert showdown. In one corner we have giants of the industry, and reigning champion since 2007: John Lewis. And in the other corner we have the New kids on the block, the official underdogs: Marks and Spencers! Is 2016 finally the year where John Lewis have been knocked off their pedestal? Did the underdogs finally beat the elusive champion of Christmas Adverts? Or has this year been a pretty bad one for Christmas Adverts as a whole? Time to find out…
The Christmas adverts must first be judged on their song choices. A good song has the power to hit the viewer right in the gut. So which one wins in this category? Well…it’s a bit of a tie in the fact that they were both a bit boring. Neither really got the waterworks going, even John Lewis have failed to pick a song worthy of playing on repeat. Whereas, Marks and Spencers went with a pretty generic musical interlude. Even worse they chose to go with no song lyrics! How is the English public supposed to sing along when there’s no lyrics?! So, really this category isn’t a win for either…time to move on to the next one.
What is the actual message of the Christmas advert? Along with a good song, a winning advert to claim the prize needs to have a heartfelt and soul-crushing message to go along with it. Now, this is where a lot of critics have weighed in their opinions, with the consensus labeling John Lewis’ message as ‘boring’ and ‘not sad enough’. Therefore Marks and Spencers ‘the underdog’ clearly comes out on top for this category. Let’s all admit it, if there’s a little kid giving presents to their family members there’s always gonna be a few tears. You can never go wrong with a heartfelt kid for your christmas advert message! Along with that, Mrs. Claus kicks ass riding in her helicopter and stepping up her fashion game. This message has it all, and leaves its competitor in the dust.
Leading perfectly onto my next and final category, and arguably the most important of them all…the crying test. A good Christmas advert, ironically, is measured by the level of crying the viewer resorts to whilst watching said advert. With the ugliest and loudest of cries indicating the true champ of this years showdown. Now, John Lewis is usually the winner in this category…however as we know John Lewis has been lacking this year and this category is no different. I understand that dogs are cute, and dogs happier are even cuter, but unless that dog is dead on Christmas and the boy is standing over its grave under the tree, there will be no tears coming from my eyes. So John Lewis sadly didn’t win for me. Marks and Spencers, though, wasn’t much better. Yeah I guess it’s cute that he wanted to buy his sister some shoes because he loves her, and his dog chewed her old ones up, but if that was me I would throw the shoes at her because she seems like such a brat. I got more annoyed at the little boy than sad about it. This advert was a false representation of sibling relationships and because of this Marks and Spencers failed in this category as well!
The final consensus is unfortunately pretty lackluster. For me, neither one stood out miles above the other. But Marks and Spencers was slightly better than the reigning champ defender John Lewis. Because of this, the winner of Christmas Advert Showdown for 2016 is ‘the underdog’ Marks and Spencers ! But I do want to offer a word of advice for adverts in 2017…step up your game. 2016 has been horrible enough without less-than-par adverts ruining it even more.
Edited by Nicole Swain
Sources:
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