Lee Earle

So here is the full Jungian reading of the John Lewis ad that you know you need. The Venus flytrap is consumer capitalism. By the end, it is vomiting out presents to an acquisitive family who were queasy about allowing it into the house, and now feel guilty about shoving it out into the cold (but not sufficiently guilty to bring it back in again). The family is the 2023 ad industry, awkwardly re-embracing the commercial purpose it has neglected for so long, while keeping it at a safe distance from the warm, cosy mental comfort zone of social purpose. The gift of the Venus flytrap comes from the boy (Gen Z) looking beyond his parental generation (including the absent father, who represents the lost creative force) and appealing instead to his Gran, who is Bill Bernbach. The result is a re-embracing of advertising’s role in driving growth that appears scary and ugly on the surface, but also gives us many things we want, including Lego Minecraft. Meanwhile, there is a visual echo between the John Lewis flytrap and the Morrisons oven glove, which is no coincidence as both emerge from the collective unconscious of our times. The Morrisons oven glove represents the lower middle class’s functional relationship with consumption. The glove is protective and utilitarian, the music is cheerful, the faces and superficial identities of the cast are largely hidden and unimportant, the message is one of solidarity as the cat (representing individualism) paws at the window. The John Lewis flytrap represents the upper middle class’s dysfunctional relationship with consumerism, wanting its rewards but afraid it is a monster that will ultimately consume them (or their dog, who represents familial bonds). The music is both highbrow and anxiously frenetic. Finally, the John Lewis and Marks & Spencer ads are built on a similar ‘insight’ involving a strained combination of respecting tradition but also you-do-you. We are stuck between an uneasy relationship with our past, and uncertainty about the future. Morrisons has the answer: We can build this dream together, standing strong forever, nothing’s gonna stop us now. We are entering the pre-post-purpose age and the ad industry is dreaming fitfully about its future. Things may eventually improve, but will also continue to be weird.