To wonder why this Sainsbury's ad received more backlash than the other?

[SingularFirefly]

Both are Christmas ads with families celebrating Christmas. Only, when the first one was released, it received numerous complaints. Though, when the second one was released, it didn't receive any.

For the life of me, I can't tell what the differences are between the two. Why did people complain about the first one, but not the other? Many even went as far as boycotting the supermarket, though no one said the same about the ad with the second family.

Please help me work out why?

Ad 1:
Ad 2:

TIA. I just can't seem to work it out!

Ok, obviously it's because it's a black family. Cut to the chase and stop fannying around.
For many city dwellers, there is no issue there as there are people of all races, and all ethnicities around them every day. For other people, more rural dwellers and those who don't live in big cities, they feel it's forced political correctness and that's why they complain. I live in Scotland. I'm going to put it out there and say that I see many, many more Indians, Pakistani's and Chinese every day than I see black people. But they are very under represented in these adverts (and yes, you DO get Christian SE Asians), so you could use a SEA family if you wanted, but because there is a huge black population in the London bubble, that's where the attention goes.
No one really cares. I certainly don't. An advert would not mean I shopped at one place or another. Proximity tends to make that choice for me, as I suspect it does for 99% of us.

@ginghamstarfish

I am not at all racist but to be honest an ad featuring only black people seems unusual to me - where I live in Scotland it is most unusual to come across anyone who is not white, so it is not representative to me. I think a mix of people and ethnicities would surely be better and have more widespread appeal.

It seems unusual because it isn't done enough. Your adverts represent the whole of the UK and in the whole of the UK all black families are normal. They might not be a majority bit they're perfectly normal, ordinary.

Can people really only relate to people who match their skin colour? What about hair colour or accent? Surely a family of all English people would be unusual in some areas of Scotland or Wales? Working class families would be unusual in some areas. Who exactly IS allowed in an advert?

For other people, more rural dwellers and those who don't live in big cities, they feel it's forced political correctness and that's why they complain how narrow must your lives be tho to think "an all black family? Why they're rarer than hen's teeth! Good gosh, how contrived to think these families can in any way have the same values as us?". Because surely that's what it comes down to. You might not see many black people, but surely people know there are lots of non white people in the UK? And therefore hiring some to work in advertising is hardly a suprise

@ginghamstarfish

I am not at all racist but to be honest an ad featuring only black people seems unusual to me - where I live in Scotland it is most unusual to come across anyone who is not white, so it is not representative to me. I think a mix of people and ethnicities would surely be better and have more widespread appeal.

But the concept of the ad is about a daughter looking forward to going home for Christmas, with a phone call to her dad in the background whilst family photos show on screen. The family happens to be black. How would you shoehorn a while family into this set up?

Seemingly Gingham is much more comfortable with mixed families, of they've at least opened themselves up to marrying at least one person, they must be ok 🤣

I really like this advert. It is nostalgic and makes me think of my family christmases growing up. Especially the gravy!

People are racist. Unfortunately this type of behaviour has seen a rise in the last few years because of Brexit, Trump and people in positions of power who feel it is okay to question people of different ethnicities being in this country (and in the US). This has given rise to the small minded bigots and racists believing that their thoughts aren't actually that bad - so they feel comfortable to air their racist views.

It makes me massively uncomfortable but at least we know the racists are still out there. And it highlights why causes like BLM are so important and instrumental.

And I'm so tired of people saying that their tiny little village is white. And what? The country as a whole is bigger than your little village. If you can't wrap your head around that maybe just stop watching the tv all together. Don't use it as a reason to denounce inclusivity for the rest of the country. It is still veiled racism.

@AuntyPasta

It reminds me of this

www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/co-meath-couple-lay-low-due-to-racist-abuse-after-lidl-advert-1.4041975

It’s funny how language evolves. It used to be that racists complained about ‘political correctness gone mad’ and now it’s ‘virtue signalling’ when a person or group isn’t bigoted like them.

Gemma Doherty is the Irish Katie Taylor.

'how narrow must your lives be tho to think "an all black family? Why they're rarer than hen's teeth!'

Stop being provocative. You know fine well what I was saying re the forced PC. As I say, I don't really give a fig about what colour people are in adverts. The focus on Afro-caribbean families tho is very London centric. It's not the norm where I live (a city) where, as I said, there is a much larger SEA population than black families.
It's not prejudice - it's lived experience.
Here are some stats.
www.statista.com/statistics/367842/scotland-ethnicity-of-population/
www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest

That's why some people feel (and I don't care) that PC is being pushed onto them, because it's not their lived experience.

@ginghamstarfish

I am not at all racist but to be honest an ad featuring only black people seems unusual to me - where I live in Scotland it is most unusual to come across anyone who is not white, so it is not representative to me. I think a mix of people and ethnicities would surely be better and have more widespread appeal.

Yet living in Scotland people are constantly experiencing "all English" adverts, TV shows etc which are not "representative" either - yet we don't grumble they are "unusual" (grumble because Scots feel ignored yes, but doesn't that give you an inkling of the issue?)

It's great that we have black people in ads.
But they need to find some black actors with regional accents. They all have SE English accents (possibly they don't and the ad makers have dubbed the 'correct' accent, I don't know).
Imv we have had black people in ads for the last few years (not many prior to that) so I'm really surprised people are complaining.
Ridiculous.

CannibalQueen, what's it like being racist? Is it very different to being non racist, or does it stress you out when you see what you consider to be 'forced PC' on the television. Do you turn it off, or over, or do you just froth?

That's why some people feel (and I don't care) that PC is being pushed onto them, because it's not their lived experience.

But isn't that the entire point? Why do certain people feel entitled to demand that ALL television and ALL advertising 100% represent them and their "lived experience", and if there's even one single TV ad that represents the "lived experience" of millions of other Brits, they freak out and throw a tantrum, rather than simply ignoring it or accepting that the entire world does not revolve around them.

There are so many comments from people basically saying "I don't see why black people need to see black faces on TV, I don't need to see people who look like me" yet these comments are always from people who historically HAVE seen almost nothing except people who look like them. If you grow up never seeing anyone who looks like you, I bet you'd think and feel very differently.

I also wonder what the "I don't see what the fuss is about I don't need TV to represent me" commentators would think if it was gender and not race - if we lived in a culture where TV/films/ads/magazines were almost entirely male, where it was rare to ever see a woman or female character on TV, if the Internet exploded into outrage at the mere sight of a woman. Would those same people be insisting that they don't know what the fuss is all about and would be perfectly happy to never see women being visible?

Just saw this on TikTok, racist abuse in Sainsburys

vm.tiktok.com/ZSqPkd4b/

@Coronawireless. Do you mean Katie Hopkins? Think Katie Taylor is the boxer🤣

[quote DonnaQuixotedelaManchester]@Coronawireless. Do you mean Katie Hopkins? Think Katie Taylor is the boxer🤣[/quote]
Oops yes!!!🙂

@CannibalQueen

'how narrow must your lives be tho to think "an all black family? Why they're rarer than hen's teeth!'

Stop being provocative. You know fine well what I was saying re the forced PC. As I say, I don't really give a fig about what colour people are in adverts. The focus on Afro-caribbean families tho is very London centric. It's not the norm where I live (a city) where, as I said, there is a much larger SEA population than black families.
It's not prejudice - it's lived experience.
Here are some stats.
www.statista.com/statistics/367842/scotland-ethnicity-of-population/
www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest

That's why some people feel (and I don't care) that PC is being pushed onto them, because it's not their lived experience.

You know diversity isn't just a place on London right? Most Black Britons can be found in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country. The 2011 census found that... 1.09 million of those werein London, where they made up 13.3 per cent of the population.... Outside of London, the next largest populations are in Birmingham (96,360, 9%) / Wolverhampton (17,309, 6.9%), Manchester (43,484, 8.6%), Leeds (25,893, 3.45%), Bristol (25,734, 6%), Reading, Berkshire (22,921, 6.7%), Nottingham (22,185, 7.3%), Leicester (20,585, 6.2%) , Sheffield (20,082, 3.63%) and Luton (19,909, 9.8%)

In the 2011 census Birmingham was home to the largest Black Caribbean population, with 8% of all Black Caribbean people living there, followed by Croydon (5.3%) and Lewisham (5.2%), both in London.

Haven't even seen the adverts but twitter etc brings out all sorts as its so easy to hide behind a screen
Uk is diverse so adverts / tv should represent that , but in general xmas ads are normally crap
Never understand why people go so mad on the john lewis one

"For some people, it's more about the fact that people are sick to death of the disproportionate amount of black, and mixed-race people on TV - especially in adverts."
Don't know who posed this, but ha!ha!ha!
What a load of poisonous fucking nonsense and that is why racism needs calling out

I think it's common for people to feel, in both direction, that the mix of ethnicities they see on tv or adverts is off. If you live in one place, it may seem overly white. If you live in another, it may seem populated by an impossible mix of people.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of what % of representation is on television is generally. If I were to take a guess, in the UK I would suspect it was close to the % of the population, but possibly with more non-white people on television. But it's difficult to know based on experience.

I have seen something like this first hand though. I watched a series recently that was filed in my town, in fact in m neighbourhood, and was meant to take place there. The main cast was racially diverse, which made sense given the theme of the show. However, the secondary cast and extras were really interesting - they really didn't reflect the local demographics, even though my area is actually considered less white than average here. For example in scenes in a pub, or on public transport, something like a third of the people would be black. Percentage wise you'd expect something more like five percent, or you could maybe justify up to 10%. But nowhere near 30% or more! It looked really weird though I imagine people in the rest of the country didn't think it was so odd.

@Foghead

I can’t believe the comments like ‘I don’t see myself in this advert’ How self centred and ridiculous. I bet they don’t see themselves in most adverts, like most people, but wouldn’t complain. It’s just blatant racism.

Yup.

Diversity star praises Sainsbury’s Christmas advert ‘triggering racists’ -

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/sainsburys-christmas-advert-racist-ashley-banjo-b1724892.html

It makes me feel so sad that in 2020 people hold these views. Ignorance is nothing to be proud of. I like the sainsbury's ad, I thought it was nice to see an all black family on tv. I cynically did think to myself "the racists will have a field day with this" and I wasn't wrong.

Last link I promise 😂

‘Me walking into Sainsbury’s now that racists have decided to shop elsewhere’

vm.tiktok.com/ZSqHBTvk/

Not sure how anyone can justify blatant racism by claiming its over pcness gone mad. No. It is racist twats being openly racist twats. Very depressing.

I've never gone into my bathroom while drinking my coffee follwed my my teenage for a good sniff of the air.

I just don't see myself in that advert.

I will send my email of complaint forthwith.