AIBU to sob full on snot bubbles for this clip?

[Soubriquet]

Viewers are urging John Lewis to sack their advert team and hire this dude who made a video for just £50

If you don’t cry, do you even have a heart?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=JHX0btJYcyI

Having a cry. So much more in keeping with Christmas than all the pushing of buying gifts. Btw, loved his hair.

I don't have a heart either!

Yes, it kind of feels like it's exploiting people for whom this scenario is actually real for 'sadness points' or something?

Totally agree. I watched it a second time and actually I got a weird smugness vibe from it - like ‘look at this poor sad man, all he wants is his mum who died, have a cry and feel happy about being with your own family this Christmas.’

I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but it does feel a bit exploitative to me.

Is it an advert for anything?

Oh fuck - sobbing like a baby here

Yes that made me cry!

Very pleased it's not an actual advert for a shop though - I'd rather they didn't use deceased parents as a way to flog stuff they're pretending to tell you you don't need...

I didn't cry because although it's meant to be poignant, I can't see past it being just an actor who wants to go viral. I also don't make purchases based on sob stories or guilt, so it would probably have put me off shopping at John Lewis had it been their ad.

Totally shit as a Christmas ad, Christmas for me is about celebration and joy, not misery and sobbing over lost loved ones - I do enough of that on normal days of the year.

I also dislike man buns, but each to their own.

I have cried at that because my dad died when I was two and I have utterly no memory of him, no idea what the sound of his voice was like. I've been told he used to sing little songs as he dried us after our baths, but I don't remember anything of that.

Yon beardy fella is lucky he has recordings of his mum and a Sony Walkman out of a museum to play them on...

It didn't make me cry as I have no frame of reference for it. My Mum would never say anything like that. She hates me and wants me to be unhappy. She worked hard with my Dad to try to ruin my life. I think if you remember your own mum telling you that she loves you and you imagine her being dead like his mum is, I think it would make you cry. But I just feel awkward and squirmy inside.

I burst into tears but i am highly emotional

Sobbing and snotty here. Admittedly I cry at ANYTHING but that was really moving (and felt much less manipulative than a lot of the Christmas ads)

I am currently having treatment for cancer and whilst at the moment my prognosis is very good, obviously it has crossed my mind a lot that it's possible that I may find myself recording messages for my kids one day soon, or doing what Rachael Bland did and wrapping presents for my kids that I will never see them open. That's a real feeling for me, a feeling so dark that actually I can barely let my brain go there with it, and I feel like someone has taken that feeling and used it in order just to say 'look how sad I can make this Christmas film'? Especially as this guy released it as an alternative to the JL ad, like 'my film tugs more strongly at the heartstrings than yours!'

I don't know, I'm sure there will be others in my position or others who have lost loved ones who feel differently to me, but I don't like it at all.

@Avegemitesandwich

I totally agree.
Wishing a speedy recovery and a wonderful Christmas with your family x