It's a Wonderful Life - with a little help from your friends

Christmas is a wonderful time to be in the advertising business. Clients boost their budgets, and we get to make Christmas ads that will showcase our creative genius to the world. Or is there maybe a deeper message?

Everything I Know about Advertising I Learnt from the Movies: #7

It’s Christmas. Snow is falling, bells are jingling, and choirs are singing, but all is not well in adland.

George Bailey runs a small family advertising agency in the town of Bedford Falls. Not quite the picture of his hopes and dreams as a young man, to conquer the world advertising stage, but it supports his family and the community, and his customers love him. So do his family. And friends. Actually, pretty much everybody. 

Why? Because throughout his life, George has always put others before himself.

But lurking ominously in the shadows is someone who never has: Henry Potter, the evil CEO of global advertising conglomerate, HPP. Having just undertaken a corporate merger and laid of half his employees, he is now threatening to destroy everything George stands for and has done, and bring misery to the good consumers of Bedford Falls.

Or, haven’t I remembered it quite correctly?

Anyway, on a snowy Christmas Eve, rather than feeling full of good cheer, George feels instead full of self-loathing. Alone, despondent and desperate, he is about to end it all. Doesn’t really sound like a much of a Christmas movie so far, to be fair.

But at the same time, bells play the tune of  ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ softly in the background and a warm glow emanates from the windows of homes, businesses and churches. So do the voices of his family, friends and townsfolk, praying for George in his darkest hour.

The voices drift up into the starry heavens, where they are relayed to the CEO of Everything, by his assistant Joseph. Together they summon Angel Second Class, Clarence, to help out.

“Clarence, a man down on earth needs our help,” says the CEO. “Splendid,” replies Clarence with childlike enthusiasm. “Is he sick? “No, worse,” the CEO answers. “He’s discouraged.”

I know how George feels sometimes. I’m guessing many more of you do too, after a tough year for lots of us in the advertising business: the many who have been laid off and struggled to find new roles, or just struggling out there in the sometimes-bleak midwinter of the freelance world.

In George’s bleak midwinter Clarence arrives just in time, and takes him back through his life, from when he was a young boy. He shows him (and us) how wonderful his life has been, the people’s lives he has touched, and how the world is a much better place for him being in it. Although his youthful dreams of adventure, travelling to foreign lands and winning Cannes Gold Lions never materialised, he found much greater riches, in the love of his friends and family at home.

In our digital, globally connected, remote/hybrid world, it can seem that anything and everything is possible. And we’re exhorted to always seek out the new. The world is your oignon, as they don’t say in France. It consists of many different layers – but it can sometimes make you cry. Especially if you’re a freelancer these days.

Like George, it’s always great to dream big, but often you find that the path to your dreams lies much closer to home, among the people you know, trust and love. And as wonderful it is to discover new connections and build new relationships, what you really need is often right in front of you. You just maybe need to look a little harder.

In my first year of freelance I’ve cast my net far and wide, and landed a few small catches, made some new connections and started to build new relationships. But it is the friends and former colleagues – people I already know, respect and trust – who have helped me the most. Sometimes through offers of work, but just as importantly through other kinds of practical help and advice, kind words of encouragement and support, helping me to keep believing in myself, when it sometimes hasn’t been so easy. I’m no George Bailey, but I hope I am also able to help some of them too.

OK, I’m probably sounding like a schmaltzy, over-sentimental Christmas movie now: like It’s a Wonderful life is and has been seen by some. 

Despite being nominated for five Oscars, when it was released in 1946 it was a box office failure and director Frank Capra was widely written off in the movie business. He probably felt a bit like George.  It was only when its copyright expired in 1974 and it was released into the public domain, so could be broadcast without permission or paying royalties, that it became a Christmas Classic. It has since been recognised as one of the best movies ever made and a family favourite. Sometimes things take a little longer, and while they do, it’s your friends and the people that love and respect you, who help you along the way.

In the final scene of the movie, when George is back in the loving bosom of his family, he sees a book lying under the Christmas tree: Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

He picks it up and opens it. Inscribed on the inside cover is a message to George, from Clarence: “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.”

There are lots of valuable lessons in It’s a Wonderful Life – for advertising and for life – not least, being there for each other. And not just at Christmas. So, when I watch it again this year, I’ll raise a glass to all the wonderful people who’ve been there for me through the ups and downs this last year. And I'll look forward to what next year will bring. A Christmas ad maybe.