Why the new John Lewis ad is dividing opinion at PC HQ
The first time I saw the new ad for John Lewis, it brought a tear to my eye. Not because it was beautifully shot, which it most certainly is. Not because I wished I’d come up with the idea. And not even because, as yet, we don’t have a John Lewis store in Northern Ireland. No, it made my lip quiver and my eyes moist because it made me think about the inevitable death of all the women in my family: my mother, my wife and even my two young daughters. Now I know that death eventually comes to us all and it’s something we have to deal with. Last week I read a quote that went something like this: “From the moment we are born we are all dying one minute at a time” but I found that inspirational and life-affirming. It made me feel that I had to urgently go out and make the most of all the minutes I have left. But the John Lewis ad simply made me feel sad and a bit upset. I hated them for reminding me about the brief nature of human existence.
If you haven’t seen the John Lewis TV Ad, it’s showing on youtube:
At first I thought it was just me. I am, it has to be said, a bit of a sentimentalist. A mentalist, some might say. But I noticed on Twitter that some people I follow in the ad business felt exactly the same way. Copywriter Jill Tomlinson (@shelikestowrite) conducted a straw poll on the very subject asking her followers how the JL ad made them feel. The consensus was ‘sad’ and the reason, ‘death.’
Strangely, this made me feel a bit better. My advertising radar and emotional sensibilities weren’t as skew-whiff as I had first thought. But then I happened to mention the ad when I was in Pierce Communications – an agency I freelance in on a regular basis.
“Oh, it’s brilliant.”
“Fantastic”
“One of my favourites, ever”
These were just three of the positive responses I got, and all from female colleagues. On further quizzing (actually, I think I might have said, ‘Are you out of your mind?’) it turns out that they liked the ‘cradle to grave’ approach John Lewis offered women. “It’s there for you, every step of the way,” they argued, which I suppose is the central proposition of the commercial. If that was the brief then Adam & Eve, John Lewis’s ad agency, delivered it in spades.
I just wish they could have done it without making me think about my loved ones dying.
Granted, my analysis is pretty one-dimensional. Selfish even. But Alison McElroy at PC who was effusive in her praise for the ad, also sent me a link to a piece on The Times’ website.
and although its headline purports to being in admiration of the ad, there is a darker analysis going on.
The writer, Shane Watson, ruminates on the current female zeitgeist when she says:
“[The ad is] a rose-tinted world, untouched by modern pressures (though, note, the mum does come home with a briefcase), that makes our own lives seem messy and fraught by comparison. Not only that, but, watching it, you are reminded how fast time goes when you have so much to get right.
That’s the other sense in which this ad is timely: it has arrived at a moment when there’s an overwhelming sense that women are unhappy with their lives. In the past couple of weeks alone, two high-profile columnists have confessed to crippling depression, hot on the heels of Emma Thompson and Marian Keyes — more evidence that even those who appear to have everything can feel inadequate. What John Lewis has stumbled on is the simple truth that women are at the peak of an identity crisis. The soundtrack to the ad is Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman, because Billy was crystal clear what being a woman involves — unlike us, who are struggling to find the right formula. That’s why we gulp when we see that ad: so much hope and potential at the start, and still so far from living the fairy tale.
Then look what happened to the perfect life of Mad Men’s Betty Draper. Or Princess Di’s. Or Martha Stewart’s. Life never did, and never will, quite measure up to a John Lewis ad. That’s why we’re all so obsessed with soft furnishings and kitchen equipment and styling our homes to look like the ideal nest for the happy family. Clever John Lewis.”
Is John Lewis ‘clever’ by making the women of the UK feel inadequate or unfulfilled when they watch this ad?
Does that very insight make it uber-aspirational or ultra-crass?
Personally I think using human mortality is a bit of a duff way to try to sell nice curtains. But that’s just my opinion. I noticed that two weeks ago, Campaign Magazine made it their ‘Pick of the Week’, so maybe my sentiment is getting in the way of my creative judgment.
The good news for John Lewis is of course, that because they don’t have any stores where I live, I can’t refuse to shop in them. I’m sure they are breathing a huge sigh of relief!
Let me know what you think.