John Lewis and it’s ‘gender relaxed’ ad

This Metro opinion piece doesn't seem to get it either:

metro.co.uk/2021/10/15/the-new-john-lewis-insurance-advert-is-just-that-an-advert-15428452/

I don't understand how people can be so dim or are they really?

Is it still being broadcast on television? I saw it on C4 on Tuesday 12th during Bake Off. I know it's online but has anyone seen it on TV since?

Maybe smear paint in the kitchen section

Its horrible advert.
He's aggressive, bullying, and because he's dressed as a girl of course he has to act like a diva, because aren't all little girls divas (yawn at the tired old drag trope)
Would have been more impressed if he had dressed up as Elsa and accidently made a mess while using his mums make, not this strutting round the house damaging everything and painting trans flag colours on his face, that feels too political.

I would join you too but it would be some poor cleaner picking up the glitter for the next million years not the idiot higher management who signed off on this travesty.

My DS has dabbled in dresses etc in the past when he was about the same age as this boy. When he wore them he either a) did all the 'sass' and posing, but was also laughing and smiling and clearly having fun with it or b) just got on with his normal activities whilst wearing the dress.

He never acted like this boy was in the advert, that kind of stuff is adult projection isn't it? And he certainly never trashed my house in the name of 'expressing himself', he would have been in for the bollocking of his life!

If the sister had stood up and said 'don't even think about it, punk' when her brother was eyeing up her painting activity as next on his list of things to destroy, people probably would have said she is the miserable 'TERF' who is 'stopping him from being his authentic self'.

Might go and throw my shoe around the lighting department of JL and when questioned by security just shrug and say 'let life happen'

Well, no. And nor did my parents when my sister and I did mean or destructive things - we got a bollocking and were told to make it right We weren't encouraged to do it and we were given appropriate consequences
Your examples were destroying personal property, a doll and a diary. Not the house you lived in, entirely age appropriate btw, taking a siblings items and breaking them. Many children have stories like this and the punishment meted out. Not many have the time they broke the pictures on the wall and destroyed a banister with nail varnish and ruined a carpet etc.

If you want to argue the ad is showing poor behaviour from a child in
a positive light, fine. I've no argument there
I'm pretty sure we have all said this.

What I think is utterly bizarre is people acting as though this child (in a clearly stylised, exaggerated advert designed to show the messy unexpected stuff that happens in your home, hence the need for insurance) is somehow a symbol of: bullying, patriarchal control
of five year olds over their cowering mothers, wildly unusual
behaviour for a small child, pro-trans allegories, anti-trans allegories,sexualising of children, or anything else
Hes not five, hes more around 9 or 10.
Ok its exaggerated fine, not a great exaggeration to have in an advert, nothing like giving kids ideas eh?
It most definitely shows bullying behaviour to the sister unless you believe ww3 wouldnt happen in any other house in the country should a brother throw his sisters paint on the floor?

Dunno who brought up trans and meh, but the sexualising of children is right there staring you in the face. Every part of that strut, pout etc is sexualising of children. In literally any other child if that behaviour was noticed then some service or intervention or conversation with adults about the behaviour would happen.
Just because you dont see it doesn't mean it's not there. Enough people have told you and a link has been posted and still you insist that we are wrong.
In common parlance in current year, go educate yourself last you look any more foolish.

Also he doesn't look happy or joyful about his spree. It's weird. Can't put my finger on it.

Yes, I think it looks deliberate, defiant and malicious. Perhaps that is why it feels so wrong.

merrymouse and Piapiano yes, exactly. I am just not seeing how he is 'unaware of the unintentional consequences of his actions' as JL put it.

That advert is awful.

That behaviour is completely unacceptable. That is not “unintentional damage”. Unintentional damage is a child who has been painting and accidentally touches the wall or the sofa on their way to wash their hands. Or spills hot chocolate on a carpet. This little brat damaged the entire house on purpose. And the mum just sat there.

And I would be worried about that sexualised behaviour. If any of my children displayed that I would worry that they had watched something on YouTube that they shouldn’t (it appears that some year 6 children bring phones with certain downloads onto the bus, still fuming about DS watching a bit of squid games).

I am baffled at the people who cannot see that. But the absence of own children does explain some instances.

And unless I happen to know the worst-behaved children in the world, chucking stuff about and is (unpleasant but) fairly normal, even at 8 or 9 - "Can you not kick your football about inside the house / You've broken the lamp and this is the secone time you've been warned" would be a perfectly normal thing for my SIL to say to her kids. Naughty, yes, but not spectacularly unusual.

That is entirely different to deliberately kicking your shoes off directly at the light fittings, deliberately trashing your sisters painting activity and deliberately painting handprints on the kitchen cupboards. Can you really not see the difference?

As for the 'sexualisation' thing. It's not overtly sexual, like there is no twerking or hip thrusting. But it's just the....adult nature of it, i can't put my finger on it. 8 year old kids should be smiling and laughing if they are doing something they really enjoy, not pouting and looking serious, where have they got that from?

It makes me think of Desmond is Amazing. Here is a child who is apparently doing the thing he loves most in the whole world. And yet, look at his Instagram feed, he is hardly ever smiling. And when he is, its not a natural carefree child smile, its still a very 'knowing' smile. It's just not what kids are, or should be, like.

Or "how to encourage your family to think domestic violence is normal".

The tag line would more accurately be:

"Stay quiet, let it pass, pretend nothing happened".

Just watched the ad - clearly the sister isn't allowed to 'let life happen', and instead has to put up with wilful damage to her activities.

Is any one here old enough to remember the Mini-Pops?

I was probably about the same age as the youngest kids in it, I loved it and my gran recorded it for me as we didn't have channel 4 in our area

I'm also astounded at people thinking that deliberately breaking things in the house is normal for a child this age. And that it's normal for no adult in the house to tackle that behaviour. I'm not some door mat for my children. To clear up whatever mess they decide to make on any given day. I know these parents and their children are awful. We avoid them. Why is JL celebrating that as normal parenting?

There is a lot that's weird about the ad. He's acting in a pouting, sexualised way for a good long time as he struts round the house. All kids can throw the odd pose but this a bit too sustained for comfort. Also he doesn't look happy or joyful about his spree. It's weird. Can't put my finger on it.
And yeah, upsetting your sister's paints - great job. But hey she's just so square isn't she?
My son once, at the age of 3 drew a 'treasure map on a white duvet cover with a permanent marker (idiot parents for leaving it out for him). And we do genuinely still laugh at that. But that was a moment of whimsy at the age of THREE. Not, what 8?