Irish Examiner view: Ad managers return to spirit of Christmas past

This year's John Lewis advert features a story about family life, the passing of time, and dad dancing Picture: John Lewis 

It’s that time of year, the phoney war between Halloween and Black Friday, when we need to stand back and ask: What are advertising industry creatives and media buyers are trying to tell us about ourselves?

During the 46 shopping days before Christmas, the TV campaigns will present a mindscape of how our major retailers see us, and our priorities, in 2025.

It is worth observing the march of history through the prism of what has gone before.

Five years ago, we were deep in the grip of lockdown when Amazon broadcast a poignant mini-feature of a young ballet dancer performing by herself on a city apartment roof with the tagline: “The show must go on.” Neighbours applaud and cheer from nearby balconies, a reminder of the verandah singing of quarantined Italians in Sienna, Salerno, and Naples at the start of the covid crisis.

This year’s selection is high on maudlin and nostalgia with John Lewis, an acknowledged leader in the genre, presenting a two-minute story about family life, the passing of time, and dad dancing. Eason also taps into this message with a man reading stories to his granddaughter, an important and timely reminder that there are benefits to be gained by moving away from the small and large screens.

While the usual cast list of stock cartoon characters remain — the Grinch, Puss in Boots, the ageless Kevin the Carrot, the BFG, still a favourite despite criticism of the bigotry of his creator Roald Dahl — it is the real-life narratives which carry the power into Christmas 2025.

Among the best is the tribute to farmers, fishermen, and suppliers at the core of the campaign by Morrisons, a company which has not sold generally into Ireland since 2005 when it handed its 13 stores in the North on to Asda. It deploys that theme music appropriate for foot soldiers everywhere, Stop The Cavalry.

Alongside the storylines, it is with their choice of music that advertising agencies attempt to position us. John Lewis, after its boisterous 2023 Festa by Andrea Bocelli and last year’s melancholy Sonnet by Verve, goes for the hat-trick with the 1990s club classic Where Love Lives.

You might think that nothing says Christmas like Duran Duran’s Girls on Film or the Beach Boys Pet Sounds classic Wouldn’t It Be Nice. And Boots and Lidl might agree with you. But they don’t automatically conjure up thoughts of snow scenes, a cup of mulled wine, and any “ding dong merrily on high”.

Unlike, that is, the eternal Guinness advertisement, always a pleasure to watch, although it’s difficult to view now without anticipating that Anthony Boyle’s Arthur is going to come reeling through the brewery gates, or that you are going to get a tap on the shoulder from Sean Rafferty.

What is clear, however, is that this year’s offerings are avoiding political controversy and relying on the taste for tradition amongst the citizenry.

The one real concession to modernity can be found in the Wallace and Gromit contribution to Barbour’s campaign.

Wallace has invented a “Gift-o-Matic” which can give and wrap presents, pull a cracker, and even undo the fancy paper, fully taking the stress out of the season.

Just don’t tell Elon Musk. When he’s finished dancing with the robot, he might think this machine is a good idea.

Are we on the road to a modest proposal?

We may come to regard the proposal to impose rises of between 10c and €1 on Irish toll roads from January as being, in the spirit of Jonathan Swift, a “modest proposal”.

The mixed bag of increases — on some roads but not others, and hitting goods vehicles more heavily with, no doubt, those costs being passed on to customers — are consistent with the principle that the user pays, which is a dominant consideration in much contemporary fiscal policy.

For now, taxation continues along conventional lines. For a clue of what it may look like within a decade, we should look next door where the British are a long way down the road with congestion charging and ultra-low emission zones. Neither are popular, but both are proving effective.

Now they are mulling over the introduction of pay-per-mile taxes, initially aimed at electronic vehicles, to compensate for people switching away from petrol vehicles and depleting treasury coffers.

Up to 6m people are expected to be driving EVs within three years.

The manner in which this might be implemented will be of interest in Ireland, although there will be caution because of sluggish growth in demand here.

So far this year, some 23,000 battery electric vehicles and 18,500 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have been registered.

It’s wise to let the goose grow in strength before attempting to relieve it of the golden egg.

Should the sins of the children be visited upon the parents?

Readers might be forgiven for passing over reports of the inquiry into the murders of three young girls and the attempted killing of 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Lancashire, in July last year.

The story of 19-year-old Axel Rudakubana’s crimes is grisly, upsetting, and an event which has seemed to change England, not for the better. We have enough worries of our own without dwelling on tragedies next door.

Yet the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall raises issues which have some resonance here. When things go bad and young people do grievous things, what level of responsibility could we, and should we, attribute to the parents? It’s common to blame social workers, teachers, and gardaí as scapegoats for society. But do parents get too much of a free pass in the misdemeanours of their offspring?

That’s the point being debated with increasing acrimony just a few hundred yards from the River Mersey where the parents of Rudakubana’s victims have called for his mother and father to be “held to account” for his crimes.

On Thursday, Alphonse Rudakubana said his son probably bought knives with the money he paid him to shower. The inquiry heard that his mother found knife packaging on the day of the attack but “didn’t seem alarmed” and went back to bed.

Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine, were killed on July 29, 2024. The counsel for the families told the murderer’s father they had “disdain” for his responses.

There was further scathing criticism of Rudakubana’s parents.

“We knew early on that their lack of parenting played a part in all of this, but these statements reveal a failure of parenting on a whole new level. We believe they should be held to account for what they allowed to happen. They knew how dangerous he was, yet they stayed silent. They didn’t report their concerns, they didn’t act, and in doing so, they failed not only as parents but as members of our society,” they said.

The parents of Alice added: “We call upon lawmakers and authorities to recognise the urgent need for reform. Parents must be held accountable for the actions and behaviours of their children when they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent harm.”

This is strong stuff, given that police investigated Rudakubana’s parents after the attack and took the decision not to charge them with any crime. But it will strike a chord with anyone who has lost a loved one or seen them badly damaged through homicide-related incidents perpetrated by young adults.

Earlier, the inquiry heard Alphonse Rudakubana admit the attack “would not have happened” if he had told police about a machete in his son’s possession. The weapon was ordered by the teenager using a false name and delivered to his father at their home in Lancashire in June 2023. Two knives, one of which was used in the Southport attack, were delivered by Amazon to his home a fortnight before the girls were killed.

Knife crime is, thankfully, less prevalent in Ireland. Axel Rudakubana has been sent to prison for 52 years. Thousands of lives have been altered by the widespread civil unrest which followed his actions and Britain remains in a febrile state.

But the notion that parents need to be brought to book for the misdemeanours of their children is one that might garner support further afield. We may hear much more of this argument in the future.

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