Depth Analysis

 Marks and Spencer 2014 Christmas advert

Marks and Spencer’s Christmas 2014 advert follows the journey of two fairies as they sprinkle magic over unsuspecting people below for example, …the use of two fairies literally spreading magic, reinforces the marks and spencer Christmas magic. The sense of magic and fairies also allows the advert to appeal to a wider audience of both young and older people.

The marks and Spencer advert follows several typical conventions such as the key feature of music, the music used is Julie London’s version of “fly me to the moon”, this similarly emphasising the magical theme running throughout the advert. When researching Christmas adverts I found that despite the adverts being for the Christmas period and promoting Christmas products they do not usually use festive songs, this is evident in both the 2013 and 2014 marks and spencer Christmas adverts.  Other conventions of TV adverts that are met in the adverts include the timing as TV adverts are conventionally, .. and this advert is …,also adverts usually clearly show the brand name, and this has been done in both the 2013 and 2014 adverts with the brand name Mark and Spencer being the final shot. (This is shown in the table above). However there are also several features that marks and Spencer fail to include in the 2014 advert, as they do not have celebrity endorsement.

Due to the theme of the advert orientating around magic and the fairy characters promoting the festive spirit, the advert appeals to a wide audience of both young and old members. As the adverts appeals to young members of the audience through the fun and magical spirit with the main characters being fairies, it also appeals to older members of the audience, overall the adverts aims to target such a wide audience due to the products being sold appealing to people of all ages, similarly people of different ages are shown in the advert with children being gifted with snow whilst another women is gifted with her lost cat.

Throughout the duration of the advert he colour theme is primarily dark colours with the items being advertised prominent, for example the images show the washing line featured in the advert before the magic, with dull clothing and then the magic transforms the clothes. The advert is set in a dark town setting the festive scene, however the houses are shown as lighting up after the fairies have spread the magic, this also shows the collection on offer at Marks and Spencer as the houses that are bright and the scene is lit up, as they are furnished with the marks and Spencer collection. This breaks the convention of usual storyline M&S but this can bring more interest and still does the same thing in advertising the product successfully.

                                     

The use of wording in big bright font and lightening really is dramatic and doesn't need for a voice over but clearly shows that they are talking about and also helps the running theme of 'the art of..' running through the advert clearly projects their theme of their advert. All this creative fluorescent lighting likes in with the 'art' theme. As M&S are a big company they can afford a big budget advert and having to compete with other companies they have to make it more exaggerated and big, for example the use of fireworks.

The use of over sized props really brings a sense of fun and excitement and does along with again with the art theme which is successfully used throughout the advert. The big props give this almost alice in wonderland feel. The use of over sized props, for example the handbag will clearly shows the product as it is the biggest thing on the scene, which is the a good way to promote products clearly and effective. 

The use of zoom and panning through the table, as M&S always does not sell food but also food, this clearly shows the product, scanning through the table showing the audience the available product and the appealing layout will make the audience want to buy. the different ranges of angles and shots will make the whole advert interesting and exciting, from people's facial expression or bird's eye to show clearly the product is important to grab the audience attention.

The use of extreme close-up on the face to show facial expression and mood. Here it was used an effective when the women gasped really emphasised her emotion. It makes it quite personal when using extreme close-up.The use of bird’s eye view on the plate clearly shows the food presented out nicely and aesthetically pleasingly, promoting the food that they are clearly trying to sell.