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!

Just seen an advert worh a man with a grey beard. I don't see myself in it as I'm not a man, don't have a beard nor am I grey.

I'll go to Twitter with this one!!

Even growing up in rural yorkshire I used to catch eastenders and be amazed they had like one token black family in East London. And its still like that on there. It must be about 50% BAME people in that area?

And I'm so tired of people saying that their tiny little village is white.

Exactly. My neighbourhood is majority black. I'm not claiming that as representative of the entire country, and I live in a major city with a population of millions. Who cares about some random tiny village? STFU and go watch repeats of Midsomer Murders.

I notice the characters in the other ad had (to me) broad Liverpool accents. Ticking the regionality box there.

I think Sainsburys & other retailers could have gone one step further & showed a dual heritage family. Lots of people have dual heritage backgrounds & I think that would have blown the racists tiny minds.

The Tescos Muslim family Christmas ad could have been improved by introducing none Muslim family members. My mate's mum is Polish Catholic & her dad is Palestinian Muslim. She celebrates both Eid & Christmas so the ad could have showed her situation.

@LabradorGalore

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.

Again, I couldn't care less about that the advert but why is someone pointing out that "their little village is white" (a true statement and their lived reality) any different to those people pointing out that their area of London/Birmingham/wherever is very multicultural (also true and their lived reality).

Both of these statements are factually correct so why is it wrong to express one of them?

There have been posters here who have refused to believe that other areas aren't as diverse as their area of London, even after saying they are aware of the statistics showing this, so it's unsurprising people want to confirm their own existence!

And it's hardly just "little villages" either - huge swathes of the country are still majority white. See www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest

Ignoring this and assuming metropolitan views and experiences = everywhere are exactly why we get such echo chambers, people being surprised about Brexit, the Conservatives winning seats in traditionally Labour areas, etc. = because people don't talk to each other and are too quick to consider other people's lived experience as irrelevant/out of touch/racist/woke/elite etc.

Of course this is separate to the point as to whether Christmas adverts need or should be representative of the population or if we can identify more with amorphous carrots enjoying a festive celebration more easily than a black family....

@Chailatte20

I think Sainsburys & other retailers could have gone one step further & showed a dual heritage family. Lots of people have dual heritage backgrounds & I think that would have blown the racists tiny minds.

The Tescos Muslim family Christmas ad could have been improved by introducing none Muslim family members. My mate's mum is Polish Catholic & her dad is Palestinian Muslim. She celebrates both Eid & Christmas so the ad could have showed her situation.

Muslims were in 5 seconds of a 1 minute featuring mainly white families. Are you saying non-Muslims family members should have been inserted in the 5 seconds?

And why does no one complain that Sikhs also had 5 seconds of airtime in the ad?

@ancientgran

Also is it really 80% white I live in London so it’s very diverse are there really areas where a black family is really that different ?? Yes. We moved to south devon from a big city, I'm white husband isn't and we were shocked at the reactions. DH got them in the 50s and 60s even 70s but we thought the world had moved on. Evidently Devon didn't get the memo.

Not sure where you are in South Devon but Torbay voted in favour of Brexit by about 65% to 35% so that should give you an indication of the views of the locals "(it's actually quite underprivileged with a lot of poverty so you have the white working class feeling left behind syndrome").

Can we stop with the 'feeling left behind working class' bullshit? its actually 'believed a lot of lies because it was convenient with a lot of middle class people included'

I must watch different ads to everyone else - there are minority ethnic groups represented in most ads imv. It's a good thing and should have happened years ago. But ads want to sell stuff so makes sense they try to identify with the majority groups in society - perhaps there are requirements to be inclusive now for tv advertising - so usually include mainly white people. Sounds like this is a twitter storm being promoted as if general views across the country.
I heard stats that 20% of the pop are on twitter, 10% of those post 80% of the tweets. So it's a tiny group producing wind up stuff, picked up by the rest of the media short of other news, leads to division and rants.

No. Maybe I'm not making my point very well. What I'm trying to say is that these ads tend to focus on one ethnically homogeneous group for e.g all black and all white. Whereas families in the UK have become more diverse, from an ethnic and religious perspective in the last 20 years. So you're now more likely to come across, although limited to certain geographical areas, families with mixed religious & ethnic heritage. If the racists couldn't cope with seeing a black family on TV, goodness knows what they'd think of mine. It's mad that the ads have attracted such vitriol & I bet Laurence Fox is pleased.

My family is a good example, my mum has Hindu ancestry although she's not a Hindu, sil is German Catholic and bil is is of SE Asian Buddhist ancestry. We all celebrate different cultural traditions and make an effort for each other.

Sorry my response was to @SharonasCorona. I forgot to press the quote function.

@user1471565182

Not true at all. Nothing to do with it in fact. Some working class areas were left behind. Don’t silence this.

@cologne4711 Not sure where you are in South Devon but Torbay voted in favour of Brexit by about 65% to 35% so that should give you an indication of the views of the locals Unfortunately when we moved her 25 years ago we didn't know what the Brexit vote was going to be, we didn't even know what Brexit was.

Ugghhh it’s so depressing. The advert just features people, just human beings. The fact anyone cares what skin colour they have makes me sad. It’s 2020 and we shouldn’t still be in such an institutionally racist world but we are and I just don’t know how it’s going to change. It seems to be getting worse, not better.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I watched the ads, could not work out what the problem was and then read the comments.

I am so shocked that people complained about this. Pure racism, and time we acted more on it. This people complaining/commenting shoudl get prosecuted, really.

Cannot imagine what strange world you live in where the first family isn't just another british family.

I am genuinely shocked that people thought it was ok to complain.

@Chailatte20

No. Maybe I'm not making my point very well. What I'm trying to say is that these ads tend to focus on one ethnically homogeneous group for e.g all black and all white. Whereas families in the UK have become more diverse, from an ethnic and religious perspective in the last 20 years. So you're now more likely to come across, although limited to certain geographical areas, families with mixed religious & ethnic heritage. If the racists couldn't cope with seeing a black family on TV, goodness knows what they'd think of mine. It's mad that the ads have attracted such vitriol & I bet Laurence Fox is pleased.

My family is a good example, my mum has Hindu ancestry although she's not a Hindu, sil is German Catholic and bil is is of SE Asian Buddhist ancestry. We all celebrate different cultural traditions and make an effort for each other.

actually I disagree.

For years the way of making an ad diverse has been to have one mixed race family, usually black woman white man. Ticks all the box in one go. We used to laugh about it (in an ironic way) It was rare to see a whole ad with a whole black family on it, as that was (from the advertisers perspective) 'too diverse'

There has been an outpouring of more diverse ads this year, quite noticeable, cynically it is definitely people jumping on the BLM badnwagon, but in practice it is great to see more diversity in the ads.

I am still open mouthed though that anyone thought it was ok to complain. Just. Shocked.

as to - my white village

I grew up in a very white MC rural area.
But it was never, ever 100%
But hey, who cares about that one black/Indian/Chinese family, they don't count as 'real British?'

My grandparents lived in probably one of the most white enclaves, just due to where it was. There was a bakery run by a Polish refugee from the war. So even there is wasn't 100% traditional British.

I do get what you're saying @Chailatte20 but I agree with @steppemum , it's usually a mixed race family in ads. I think the fact that the Muslim family in the Tesco ad triggered the racists but not the Sikh family was very telling sadly.

@steppemum - I also noticed how so many black actors on TV (especially on TV) were light skinned black people. It's like black is considered too much for many people to take.

yep, those 'black women white man' families were probably mixed race woman and white man actors too.

There was an ad over the summer, started with an older balck man, and then the rest of the familiy came in. can't remember who it was for, something to do with shopping.
I loved it, because it felt like an actual family, and, for a change, they were all black, and the older guy at the centre had dark skin.
But when I first saw it, I realised how unusual it was.

I think since then there has been a bit of an outpouring from companies keen to be seen as on the ball.

@SharonasCorona

I do get what you're saying *@Chailatte20 but I agree with *@steppemum** , it's usually a mixed race family in ads. I think the fact that the Muslim family in the Tesco ad triggered the racists but not the Sikh family was very telling sadly.

@steppemum - I also noticed how so many black actors on TV (especially on TV) were light skinned black people. It's like black is considered too much for many people to take.

I agree we usually see mixed race families in ads and shows these days

Part 3 was a bit lame

I hadn't realised people had even complained wtf?! Crazyness.

@LoveMyKidsAndCats

I hadn't realised people had even complained wtf?! Crazyness.

Officially there were 8 I think

Not everyone moaning about this advert is racist

Phew!

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

Oh.

Racists. Too thick to know when they're posting racist statements as an example of how they're not actually racist.