to think Farmer Dad on new Hovis ad is a miserable git?

[squoosh]

Reminded of this by the P&G Olympian ad thread. Has anyone seen the new Hovis ad?

It shows a 10 year old boy helping his Dad out on the farm for a day. His Dad is gruff to say the least and they partake in lots of back breaking farm pausing to eat their sandwiches in silence.

At the end of the day Mother and son are nervously sitting opposite Farmer Dad eating their dinner. Farmer Mum pipes up 'How did it go?' and then after a pause Dad says 'He did great'. Mum and son look relieved/thrilled for his approval.

I can see they are trying to move away from cloyingly sweet ads but does anyone else think this Farmer Dad is a miserable sod?

god yes, I SO agree!! I reckon it's child abuse!! (tho the DDs tell me that the boy in question did ASK to help out...)

Just watched it. He's a right grumpy shite isn't he??. And comes across as a crap Dad.

Looks like slave labour too. Also he calls the kid 'lad' about 57 times in the advert but never by name. Odd.

haha! yes he doesn't exactly look a barrell of laughs does he?!

it's grim oop north tho innit? (or so I am told). I reckon that farm is a place where Men are Men and sheep are scared.

YANBU, it's a horrible advert and I found it quite uncomfortable to watch.

Why they think that showing some poor child desparate for a glimmer of praise from his Father is going to sell bread is beyond me.

My advice to the Mother?

Leave the bastard

my children thought it was really sad how nasty the dad was to the boy. A boycott of their products was probably not what they were trying to achieve...

It's not oop North. That man is Welsh and rather sexy

Not seen it but it must be something about the dads in bread adverts. There was one with a family on a beach and mum and dad conspired against son and were utterly vile (IMO). I posted on here and was told not to be silly IIRC....

DogEared you are wrong on both counts. They definitely have Yorkshire or Lancashire accents and he's about as sexy as haemorrhoids

This is the ad in question.

creativity-online.com/work/hovis-farmers-lad/27644

I agree dogeared. Actually I know the actor a bit, enough to say 'hello' to & stop for a chat in Sainsbo's anyway. He's gorgeous & lovely & sensitive & kind and not a bit like the farmer character he's playing. I'd do 'im

Just thinking, that probably colours my vision of the hovis add so I probably should but out of this thread now

and he is welsh.

Just watched it. What a grim ad! It's horrible.

I thought it was rather horrible as well. At one point the boy is asleep standing up from exhaustion and all he gets is a terse "Come on!" or something.

I felt sorry for him and for the poor anxious and unhappy looking mother.

The phrase "treading on eggshells" popped into my mind.

HA. He's a grumpy old bugger isn't he? Mind you, it's a grim old job, farming.

But am at the mum and the son's brilliant ears - fab lookey-likey casting

I think its a great Ad

I think it's beautifully shot.

Isn't the grumpy dad the actor from Stella?

I felt the same way about that awful John Lewis advert at Christmas. I know it became really popular but to me it just looked like a really grim family where no one smiled.

I hated this as well, made me feel quite funny. What's great about a dad who can't raise a smile or offer a word of encouragement for an entire day and worries his child into wanting approval. Horrid.

Thought the Advert was nasty tbh and seemed to involve bullying and child abuse, mom looked scared too. Surprised it was allowed.

Bloody hell some people have bleak little lives to read so much in to this

My DD said, "You won't give us that bread will you Mum?". I was quite pleased that the advert had backfired on them . They deserved it.

Seems a bit of an odd farm, given that presumably they're supposed to be growing wheat for Hovis. Where do the horses come into it? And the chickens?

Ironically it's trying to be ultra realistic but it ends up being totally unbelievable to anyone who has actually been on a farm. For one thing they do a ridiculous number of different jobs - you could realistically only do one or two of those in a day, plus, as you say Grendel the farm seems to be huge, with lots of different crops/animals - a farm that big would have more than one worker.