To not have understood Bear and Hare...

[SugarHut]

The John Lewis advert. I love it, makes me cry. A friend was here yesterday and asked me why it made me tearful.. I start with saying that he (hare) is so sad that his friend is leaving him to hibernate....

My friend replies "He?"

"Yes, him and him, they are best friends."

"The hare is clearly a girl. Don't you get that, it's the stereotypical thing of the little female and her big strong bear of a man. That's the thinking behind it. How on earth did you interpret it??!"

"They're just best friends?? Surely the hare would have little eyelashes or slightly rosier cheeks or something if we were meant to place it as female? Plus, an alarm clock is not a very romantic gift if they're meant to be lovers?! Plus why would a bear be shagging a hare?? The snowman one last year was obviously a male and a female. These are both boys and best friends!!"

Well in my head they are anyway. He thinks I'm mad.

How did you interpret it?

I presumed Hare was a female , however I just saw them as friends!

Sigh... no one NEEDS to be male or female. This is not what this is about before it all gets terribly PC. But normally, when things are cartoonified, if they are female, they are typically given bows in hair, little flicky eyelashes, that sort of thing...think "Lady and the Tramp"...if you didn't know that was the title and saw both dogs, you'd be pretty clear that one was male, one was female.

The book says "he" for both? Yippee!! That's his Christmas present sorted...handed over with a smug, knowing look

I didn't really think about whether they were boys/girls - which is a bit weird really.

Assumed friends though.

The poor bear. Having his hibernation interrupted. That's what I think.

I feel sorry for the poor buggers in the AV dept of my local John Lewis, who seem to be forced to listen to lily Allen murdering that song on a loop all day long.

They are definitely friends and boys.

There's an app!

Two male friends I thought

I used to love watching yogi bears first christmas when I was a wee nipper :)

Both boys. And friends. And a rip-off of Bear Stays Up

Mmmmm, Lily Allen singing makes me cry too.

But not for the same reason as some of you

I've been unable to watch this ad due to LA's warbling.
Could I watch on mute and still get the gist?

In RL the bear would've gobbled up the hare . It is sweet, my hard arse DP has a tear.

Wouldn't the bear want to eat all the small animals if he were woken up in the middle of winter ?

Can't stand Lilly Allen .

Bah, Humbug !

I just think Watership down, it will not end well.

Then I think how crap it is, since when did animals become religious? how did the hare buy a clock? Why hasn't the bear eaten the hare? he/she/it must be starving.

Well, we know how the hare bought a clock, sashh, he went to John Lewis!
Maybe some of the other animals have bought him a food hamper, so he won't eat them.

If I was going to buy an alarm clock I would get it from Argos anyway.

If there was a JL near and I had a here I might try taking it to see how well it shopped.

There is a great parody of the song on my local radio station about the bear wanting to eat the hare, the last line is about roasting him and stuffing him with paxo!

I thought the bear just stomped off as he was fed up with Christmas a la Scrooge.

Nasty Watership Down flashbacks with Hare - hint of mixamatosis around eyeballs.

Hate bear's 'nose up snuffle look' when sees tree.

Thought Lily allens singing a bit 'watery' - like mad woman singing in an attic.

I honestly didn't think about what sex he animals were!

I think Lily Allen sings this beautifully (had no idea it was actually her)

The bear and hare are clearly just friends. Their gender is irrelevant!

No-one needs to feel sorry for the bear. It wakes up, enjoys Christmas day with its buddies then goes back to bed for the rest of winter. It's almost like the bear is just waking up for a midnight snack / wee.

Everyone who is mean spirited enough to complain that the imaginary cartoon bear would eat the imaginary cartoon rabbit and all the other woodland creatures, or wouldn't be able to shop at John Lewis etc deserves a Christmas full of soggy over cooked brussel sprouts and a lump of coal in their stocking!

HTH

Definitely a bromance
Lovely ad, makes me blub ... but £7m

I agree dropyoursword.

Definitely male, definitely friends.

My OH and myself were analysing why last years was a better advert and came up with

1. The snowman travelled to John Lewis so you saw the store (I mean if you didn't know it was John Lewis then there is nothing in the Bear and the hare to tell you)
2. The products shown were appropriate for the season - John Lewis sold out of those glove and hat sets they were so popular. As someone has already said you wouldn't go to John Lewis for an alarm clock.
3. Models of the snowmen were at all the John Lewis stores so people could go and see them

I love, love, love the Bear and the Hare. I want a film about them and their friendship and how they met, all in that lovely animation style.