LOVE the M&S ad

[Rainyday35]

I am so fed up of being told and shown how people should spend Christmas and how things should be done because that’s how they’ve always been…

Bah humbug I say! Sadly for some Christmas is all about routine and is a chore to please everyone!

Every year we get picture perfect images of what Christmas should look like - only for many it really doesn’t look like this for lots of reasons.

And as for the flag… I think people really are stretching if they think M&S were trying to make any political statement!

I really liked it. I love Christmas but I always feel a bit shit and envious of those with big happy family gatherings over the festive season as I don't have that. It taints Christmas a bit for me with our small family. I felt M&S got exactly how a lot of us feel about the pressures, guilt and expectations of Christmas and I really enjoyed watching the advert.
I loved all the dresses too-especially the metallic silver one!

It’s great. Really well observed and beautifully made. It made me smile, especially all the hats cascading down from the wood chipper!

I can take or leave Christmas, not fussed by it at all. But if you want to SELL CHRISTMAS TAT from your shops surely you should put out an ad to encourage this??

I found it to be very odd, tbh.

I thought it was a great ad, although a bit odd coming from a company who’s selling a lot of that stressful shit!

The backlash on it though has been another level! Poor kids realising the elf isn’t real, Palestine in the fire, no white male representation, SEB’s blue eyeshadow representing Israel….it’s absolutely nuts. We’ve collectively lost our minds on social media and it’s becoming a worry!

I wish they would stop using slowed down versions of popular songs, don’t they do this every year? Just play a cracking’ Christmas tune to get us all in the mood.

What’s Meatloaf got to do with Christmas? Give us some Mariah or even Shakin Stevens (if Ms Carey costs too much).

@MainlyOnThePlain you are onto something there! I fully expect this to appear in an ad campaign somewhere next year!

I have just seen it - thought it was quite light hearted. Lots of peoples beloved traditions are others nightmare scenarios. I really hope HW shredded the elf.

She so was !

I don't mind most of the advert really. I do love a bit of festive sparkle and Hannah Waddingham is gorgeous! I secretly prefer a bit of a sob story for a Christmas advert though.

But...and this is the reason people are offended. A woman with blue eyeliner burning red, green and silver hats on a fire? The Palestinian and Israeli flags are all over social media at the moment. Yes it may have been planned and filmed months ago, but it doesn't take a genius to think maybe now isn't the time to share that kind of imagery. It isn't helpful to the Jewish or Palestinian communities and has obviously caused distress to both. There isn't a cat in hells chance that someone in the marketing and advertising teams wouldn't have stopped to think what kind of message that sends out, and if it's something that could be left out for now. It was very deliberate in my opinion and I think posters are being deliberately obtuse about why/how it could be interpreted as offensive.

Red , green and silver are Christmas colours fgs!!

As if M&S would want to get involved in that. Are you all not putting any decs in that colour up this year?? Should all shops decorate in other colours just in case they offend someone??? Get a grip!

You know these xmas campaigns are planned and filmed months and months and months in advance? M&S don't sell crystal balls.

M&S don't sell crystal balls.

No, but they do have a choice whether to peddle such balls or think again when their timing makes them tone deaf to what else is going on.

No but they can see what is happening in parts of the world right now, take a step back and think about what is and isn't appropriate imagery to share at this very present time! How

Exactly @MainlyOnThePlain ! That ad would have been filmed months ago.

It is the Christmas colours cannot believe the furore it is madness that they felt they had to pull the ad utter nonsense. It was a fun advert but some people permanently offended...it is bonkers and worrying how they are trying to make an ad in to something else....

It’s a colour on a bloody party hat!!!!

They're also the colours of many flags from around the world. And currently one flag that's being widely shared, due to the genocide of its people widely shared and reported on. It was a stupid mistake on M&S's part. Or maybe it wasn't.

I think it's awful. So miserable. Burning cards ffs.

A bit of joy might be nice.

It's been pulled because of a wrong coloured flag or something. 🙄

Brace yourselves, pearl clutchers, there will be a lot of green, silver and gold in the Christmas season and maybe some log fires too. Better stay away from TV !!

A woman with blue eyeliner burning red, green and silver hats on a fire?

That isn't in the advert at all. Why are you making stuff up?

Making stuff up?! This was an image and video shared on the M&S social media actually. It is not made up at all.

The woman with blue eyeliner - SEB - is not burning hats. She is burning Christmas cards. The burning hats were in a still that M&S released, which I didn’t actually see in the advert.

Have you watched the video?

Sophie Ellis Bextor in blue eyeliner burns some Christmas cards.

There is a still image of some hats on a fire that was apparently an outtake that doesn't appear in the video. In the video, some hats go in a wood chipper, but not by anyone in blue eyeliner.