Monty The Penguin Advertisement Analysis

Typically, when one envisions the holiday season, he thinks of feelings of happiness, prosperity, and love. However, this time of year has become increasingly a stronghold for rampant consumer spending and materialism. In consumer culture, advertising companies play to consumers’ emotions excessively. Take John Lewis’ 2014 advertisement, “Monty the Penguin”, for example, which gives us a typical Christmas tale of friendship, love, and joy. However, upon closer inspection, “Monty the Penguin” also delivers strong subliminal messaging to purchase John Lewis’ products through the usage of a variety of auditory and narrative techniques. From the opening seconds of Monty, sounds are masterfully mixed to generate a sense of sentimentality and peacefulness …show more content…
For instance, the commercial makes one long for a perfect Christmas experience. Through masterful production, John Lewis aptly convinces the viewer that to achieve this experience, he or she must purchase their products. For example, when we reach the terminus of the commercial, we see that the boy was merely imagining the animation of Monty the Penguin, and it was just a simple stuffed animal. Cleverly, John Lewis closes with, “Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of.” At this point, it is easy to render John Lewis analogous to the penguin, and the boy to the consumer …show more content…
For example, Spitzer writes, “An emphasis on the beautiful has penetrated all levels of fabrication…to the forms of propaganda used to advertise these goods.” (Spitzer 248) In the Monty advertisement, John Lewis does just this, by crafting a beautiful story of love for us to admire and appreciate. Additionally, Spitzer states, “…in advertising… the firm did not expatiate on the (product itself), but the origin of the product.” (Spitzer 252) When Spitzer interprets Sunkist’s advertisement, he notes the primary focus on nature, color schemes, and magnification of images, rather than the physical Sunkist product. Similar to Spitzer’s analysis, John Lewis does not give much information on what it is selling, but on the core values and qualities of the brand. In fact, John Lewis does this by offering absolutely no pricing structure or tangible product at all. According to the Sunday Times Top Track 100, John Lewis is the 3rd largest private company in the United Kingdom (“Top Track 100, 2015”). Similar to other global superpowers such as Nike and Coca Cola, John Lewis can trust its brand name alone to sell its