Every year, UK based retailer John Lewis comes out with a heartwarming Christmas ad and this year he has created once called “The Hare and the Bear.” This year, he made a video that combined the traditional 2-D stop-frame animation with model sets costing the company 7 million pounds.  He has made it clear that this ad was much more than an ad; it was an affective video that gets one in the mood for the Christmas holiday season.  The video tells the story of two friends: a rabbit and a bear.  However, the rabbit is very sad and lonely during the winter months because the bear is hibernating, so it puts a present in the bears cave.  This gift turns out to be an alarm clock waking up the bear for Christmas day so they could be together and enjoy the day.

Whether John Lewis’ video ad was just something that he likes to make, as he claims, or an intentional marketing tactic, it did a spectacular job of making the hearts of the audience warm with Christmas spirit and love.  The uniqueness of such a video ad drew me to find out a bit more about John Lewis, the company run by none other than John Lewis, as I am sure many viewers other than myself did.

In my opinion, this ad was so much more than a traditional video ad, which loudly throws facts at viewers and insists that their product is the best, most efficient, or safest on the market.  “The Hare and the Bear” subtly appealed affectively to viewers, creating a positive feeling about John Lewis.  Because it is so tactful, it evens prompts some (like me) to see what kind of things John Lewis sells and what it’s all about.  An advertisement that gets potential consumers to want to learn more about their product is really the goal of all advertisers, but most lack the subtly and precision that went into this ad.

Watch the video here.

http://petapixel.com/2013/11/18/christmas-ad-combines-stop-motion-hand-drawn-animation-melts-heart/

http://www.johnlewis.com