Page 2 | John Lewis and it’s ‘gender relaxed’ ad

SouthernFashionista · 2021-10-11T18:44:35+00:00

Curious to hear thoughts on the new ad from John Lewis. It strikes me as sinister. Why does a small child have to send out a message of LGBTQ equality? Why is he acting like a drag queen.

Franca123 · 27/10/2021 18:58

@LizzieSiddal

So pleased to hear this news! It’s so worrying that it got through each stage of approval. Wtf are these John Lewis employees on?!

Exactly my question. Such appalling judgement. How on earth can they run a business.

ArtemesiaK · 27/10/2021 18:57

My DH takes Private Eye. I can guarantee he will have no idea what that cartoon is about.... :)
Lucky he has me to explain things....

LizzieSiddal · 27/10/2021 18:44

So pleased to hear this news! It’s so worrying that it got through each stage of approval. Wtf are these John Lewis employees on?!

BatmansBat · 27/10/2021 16:42

Sadly I haven’t got that insurance yet.

I am in the middle of half term and it increasingly sounded like something to amuse the DCs whilst I had some time out.

Alas, not to be .

DadDadDad · 27/10/2021 16:41

@mustlovegin

That is good news... but not necessarily for all the right reasons. But still

JL's management are not stupid, and at least this will teach them to scrutinise more closely what advertising agencies propose as opposed to giving them free rein. The agencies may be working to agendas which may be very different to those of the companies who employ them. It would be desirable that other businesses got the message also

When it comes to selling a financial product, they seem to have been particularly negligent - it should not just have been JL management signing this off. I work in insurance, and we all know that we need to take compliance very seriously. At some point, this ad should have been signed-off by the compliance department of the insurance company underwriting the policy.

It might be a pain but compliance are there to protect the company from breaking FCA rules and risking a fine and reputational damage!

JemimaTab · 27/10/2021 16:41

In their latest statement, John Lewis are saying you’d have to buy an additional add-on to cover “accidental (not deliberate)” damage. But they STILL don’t say whether this would cover what the kid is doing in the ad.

ArabellaScott · 27/10/2021 16:35

@BatmansBat

Does this mean that I can’t have a cup of tea and just watch when my children are trashing the place? Safe in the knowledge that JL insurance will pay?

Gutted.

If you bought the insurance before they email you to tell you that children wilfully destroying the house aren't covered, you might have a case.

mustlovegin · 27/10/2021 16:33

Some of the comments on Facebook are terrifyingly obtuse

God knows who's managing their SM accounts. Going by what's happened with this ad, I doubt JL are being very prescriptive as to how they should or shouldn't respond

ArabellaScott · 27/10/2021 16:33

@KittenKong

I wonder what their Christmas ad will be? I assume it’s being frantically reviewed right now...

Elf is firmly on the Shelf, I presume.

KittenKong · 27/10/2021 16:23

I wonder what their Christmas ad will be? I assume it’s being frantically reviewed right now...

BatmansBat · 27/10/2021 16:19

Does this mean that I can’t have a cup of tea and just watch when my children are trashing the place? Safe in the knowledge that JL insurance will pay?

Gutted.

Catsrus · 27/10/2021 16:01

@merrymouse

It’s chilling and instructive that many people must have approved the ad before broadcast.

Indeed - this is what happens when Virtue Signalling is prioritised. No one who signed off on it appears to have asked the question "would this, in fact, be covered?"

JemimaTab · 27/10/2021 15:55

They were selling a financial product and the ad took them into mis-selling territory. Which a number of us pointed out when the ad first ran, and it was pretty stupid of them. Additional rules apply when advertising financial products (rules which are designed to protect consumers), but they brushed this off.
Even their latest statement fudges things a bit.
I did notice that they’d already started to run a shorter version of the ad on TV, which omitted some of the more gratuitous destruction and some of the aggression towards the sister. I wondered whether they’d realised that some of this didn’t look good. But then again it may just have been a shorter version.

yodaforpresident · 27/10/2021 15:22

That was a great ad.

mustlovegin · 27/10/2021 15:15

That is good news... but not necessarily for all the right reasons. But still

JL's management are not stupid, and at least this will teach them to scrutinise more closely what advertising agencies propose as opposed to giving them free rein. The agencies may be working to agendas which may be very different to those of the companies who employ them. It would be desirable that other businesses got the message also

JollyHostess · 27/10/2021 15:14

@Campervan69

Just wanted to share this for us to reminisce about the days when companies knew what a woman was and how to appeal to us.

Watching this have me goosebumps. They just wouldn't be allowed to get away with that now would they?

yodaforpresident · 27/10/2021 15:13

Some of the comments on Facebook are terrifyingly obtuse.

Whitefire · 27/10/2021 14:55

Interesting that this has been pulled by the FCA, I wonder if the ASA will make comment on the other aspects of the advert.

Helleofabore · 27/10/2021 14:37

Oh... I don't know. That cartoon looks pretty joyful above.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 27/10/2021 14:33

Yep. And the consequences of his actions were in now way unintentional. He was revelling in the destruction he was causing.

I am really surprised no one picked up on what the advert actually depicted Vs what they were aiming for.

Fluffymule · 27/10/2021 14:27

I their statement they say this was supposed to be a 'joyful depiction'.

I really didn't see 'joyful'. It felt angry and a bit aggressive.

Maybe the director misdirected the young actor, or the actor didn't quite nail the joyful bit. But I'm assuming the JL marketing team signed it off so perhaps their interpretation of joyful is different to others.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 27/10/2021 14:23

This week's Private Eye...

Ereshkigalangcleg · 27/10/2021 14:19

Presumably the confusion arose because what JL still describe as accidental was very clearly deliberate.

As multiple people pointed out, including to JL themselves!

merrymouse · 27/10/2021 14:15

It’s chilling and instructive that many people must have approved the ad before broadcast.

Helleofabore · 27/10/2021 14:14

That is good news... but not necessarily for all the right reasons. But still...