The H&M “Come Together” 2016 holidays commercial was a TV and online ad created by A&E/DDB directed by Wes Anderson. The main character in the commercial is the conductor, played by actor Adrien Brody. As they are running behind on schedule, the conductor informs the passengers on the delay caused by the poor weather and a track redirection. It just so happens to be Christmas day, and the train will be 11,5 hours late for the holiday celebrations.
However, the conductor is determined to make it a festive day for the passengers after all by organising a “small complimentary Christmas brunch, including chocolate-flavored hot beverage with whipped topping in the cafeteria section in the rear of the coach starting in 20 minutes”. The conducter announces this over the intercom as the frame scans from train car to train car capturing the passengers’ reactions. The text “19 minutes later” appears on screen with a title-card style that can be called classic Wes Anderson. We eventually find that everyone in the train has come together to create their own little Christmas, but especially for the young boy on the train. The tagline “Come Together” reads across the screen followed by the H logo. When critically deconstructing the advertisement we can make a number of statements. First off we can say that the advertisement represents both men and woman, shows a variety of ethnical backgrounds, as well as a variety of ages.
The people in the advertisement can be viewed as average, middle class people. It does not seem to be the case that the advertisement makes assumptions on, or endorses stereotypes of the following; gender, race, class. The product that is being sold in the advertisement is the H 2016 winter collection. They are likely to be selling to middle class men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 (gen x and millenials; 20-50), who might have a young child (SOURCE). The advertisement has a very homely and heart-warming vibe.
The ad is very appealing as it portrays more as a short film rather than and advertisement as it shows very little branding, aside from the line on the side of the train and the promotion tag at the end of the commercial. Looking into the consequences of the commercial, we can define both long-term and short-term consequences. Long-term consequences include brand attitude and brand awareness, most likely in the form of brand recognition meaning they will see the brand an be like “oh that’s the brand from the lovely commercial”. This combined with the positive brand attitude that has been built by the ad, will increase the chances of people making a purchase, SOURCE ON DEFENITION OF RECOGNITION), Short-term consequences include an increase in sales of the winter collection after the launch of the advertisement.
