Unit 30: Advert analysis- John Lewis's Monty the Penguin

Monty the Penguin was a Christmas advert for the department store chain John Lewis in 2014.


The Structure of the advert is that of a romance story about someone who wants to find love after seeing other peoples experience love. The song of the advert was "Real Love" which was performed by Tom Oddell but was originally created by John Lennon.


The advert starts with the boy and "Monty" the penguin watching the show Pingu which is also about a penguin. doing various hijinks in the north pole. It then cuts the pair playing hide and seek in a back yard.


And then the penguin helping the boy build something out of Lego then to the two jumping on a trampoline with boy encouraging the penguin to jump higher but the penguin is unable to do so.
Then to the pair in fort made from bed sheets reading a book with the aid of a torch. then the boy and "Monty" with the boy's mother and older sister in the park with Monty waddling behind them then to the penguin jumping in and out of the pond with the boy watching.


To at night with Monty and the boy sleeping with the penguin at the foot of the bed. Then to the boy Kicking the ball with Monty trying to catch up. then to the boy eating his dinner who sneakily feeds a fish finger to Monty. Then to the boy and his parents putting up a Christmas tree. then to the boy drawing a Christmas card for Monty.


Then to the four watching a Christmas film when the boy notices that it is snowing but Monty ignores this but paying more attention to the film which at that point has two characters romantically embracing. and then to Monty and the boy sliding down a snowy hill. the boy then falls off his sled laughing but the boy sees Monty staring at a couple walking in the snow.


Then to a bus in the city where Monty take note of an elderly couple embracing on a bench. This makes the boy realise something. Then to Christmas morning. the boy wakes Monty up and walks him to the stairs. which then cuts the living room door open with the boy's hands over Monty's eyes.
and when the boy uncovers Monty's eyes it reveals a female penguin who Monty waddles over to meet with. but it turns out it was all the boy's imagination.




The advert is shot mainly with close ups on either the boy or the title penguin with the exception of long and wide shots which are used as establishing shots.


One of the things advertised was Pingu a children's stop-motion cartoon which the advert presumably takes inspiration from. the television is which the boy watches it on is a Panasonic I think because the name of the brand is blurred most likely to avoid paying copyright or something. something else that is advertised is Lego when the boy is building a house from it. Also while not strictly advertised in the advert John Lewis did release a line of products to tie into the advert such as Monty the penguin scarves or soft toys of Monty which is ironic because in the advert "Monty" tuned out to be a toy but were rather expensive.


The target audience of the advert is that of a general audience because it's Christmas it's supposed to be about being with family.


Monty and the female penguin were animated creatures that interacted with the live action cast