Animated Christmas Adverts (1951-2018) (with Malcolm Cook)

The Christmas spirit is finally in the air, with Chris and Alex using Episode 63 of the podcast as their annual opportunity to discuss all things seasonal - this time examining the fantasy of Christmas advertising, and the repeated role played by animation in the construction of festive commercials, television ads and brand promotions. They are joined in their Yuletide deliberations by Dr Malcolm Cook, Associate Professor in Film Studies (University of Southampton), whose numerous publications include the monograph Early British Animation: From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens (2018) and the co-edited collection (with Professor Kirsten Moana Thompson) Animation and Advertising (2019). Listen as they discuss the style and form of the following selection of Christmas-themed animated advertisements: Lotte Reiniger’s “Christmas is Coming” (1951) made in collaboration with the General Post Office (GPO) informing audiences about the last postal dates; “The Flintstones - Cocoa Pebbles” (1985) that provides a playful prehistoric retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; the stargazing and fizzy drink-loving marine mammals of Coca-Cola’s “Polar Bears (Northern Lights)” (1993); the mixed media John Lewis advert “The Bear and The Hare” (2013) influenced by the sentimentality of Disney’s animated animals; Cartier’s 2016 luxurious offering titled “Winter Tale” replete with spectacular digital effects; and Hershey’s recent musical commercial “Heartwarming the World (Play the Kisses)” (2018) set to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Topics include the entwined historical and formal exchange between the animation and advertising industries; the role of desire, enchantment and the magical-making quality of Christmas-as-fantasy (including thematic connections to the “film blanc”); the challenges of archiving animated advertising and its many pioneers; the value of analysing animation’s place within a variety of popular cultural experiences; the politics of audiovisual capitalist consumption and the business of Christmas; and the ways in which global brands historically lean in and out of the festive period through highly-animated commercial enterprises.