Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

312 replies

SingularFirefly · 17/11/2020 12:52

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!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
SharonasCorona · 17/11/2020 16:39

How would you know they were racist if you passed them in the biscuit aisle? How would it affect your shopping experience?

I despise racism but this virtue signalling is irksome.

Surely having fewer racists in the aisles means it's less likely for ethnic minorities to be subject to racist abuse? I've had racist abuse in a supermarket.

MoonJelly · 17/11/2020 16:39

How would you know they were racist if you passed them in the biscuit aisle? How would it affect your shopping experience?

For goodness sake, think about it. It's not hard to work out.

I despise racism but this virtue signalling is irksome.

Not too sure that the first part of that statement is true. Not least because "virtue signalling" has become the modern version of "playing the race card".

MoonJelly · 17/11/2020 16:39

Surely having fewer racists in the aisles means it's less likely for ethnic minorities to be subject to racist abuse? I've had racist abuse in a supermarket

Precisely.

Janegrey333 · 17/11/2020 16:41

Who paydays any attention to adverts anyway. I zap them or speed on by. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Janegrey333 · 17/11/2020 16:41

...pays...

ZolaGrey · 17/11/2020 16:42

Because racism.

JudyShakes · 17/11/2020 16:44

But if they're not in Sainsbury's they'll be in another supermarket abusing BAME people. But you don't mind as long as it's not you

RoomOfRequirement · 17/11/2020 16:47

This is one of those threads where OP wants to prove they're so not racist that they don't even see colour and instead cannot fathom the difference between 2 ads. Which is also harmful to black and brown people because you refuse to see the racism they're subjected to, or pretend not to anyway to prove how woke you are.

SleepingStandingUp · 17/11/2020 16:47

@LisaLee333

I rest my case. Straight away, several posters are crying RACIST at the people who dare have a view that doesn't fit the far left narrative. A really predictable and lazy insult, spewed by the most narrow-minded of bigots.

Cheers for proving me right. Wine

So explain why you're so bothered by seeing non white faces in telly? Do you complain of there's too many men or women on it? Top many old people or too many able bodied or too many disabled people? Are you working out if there's too many bottle fed babies on shows or too many breast fed? Because you're not racist, you just want proportionate representation right? Or is it just the non white faces you're counting
PicsInRed · 17/11/2020 16:49

@JudyShakes

But if they're not in Sainsbury's they'll be in another supermarket abusing BAME people. But you don't mind as long as it's not you
Shall we have an adopt a racist programme? We'll all take turns babysitting them in our nearest supermarket in a rota basis.

"No Simon, he isn't looking at you, no he isn't going to steal your briefcase, he appears to be shopping for raspberry tea, breathe Simon, come along now."

SleepingStandingUp · 17/11/2020 16:49

@RoomOfRequirement

This is one of those threads where OP wants to prove they're so not racist that they don't even see colour and instead cannot fathom the difference between 2 ads. Which is also harmful to black and brown people because you refuse to see the racism they're subjected to, or pretend not to anyway to prove how woke you are.
She was going for sarcasm, not wokeness. It was done so poorly it's hard to tell
CherryValanc · 17/11/2020 16:49

There was an entire thread about this on here. Posters claiming it wasn't because there were ethnic minorities in the adverts but because they were only used as a 'token'. They knew this because there are far more adverts with ethnic minorities than there are white people. It's annoying that advertising companies are being 'woke' made up excuses etc etc

Sexuality came into that thread too. Not enough straight people apparently.

White straight people - that well know repressed and underrepresented group in danger of being erased now!!!

puffinkoala · 17/11/2020 16:49

The Twitter link with the comments still standing is appalling. The now deactivated accounts must be so much worse. At least, for once, Twitter is on this

Not sure they are. Have you heard of their "fleets"? Tweets that only last for 24 hours, so you can be as racist or homophobic or sexist as you please, and the evidence will disappear unless it's screenshot sharpish.

JudyShakes · 17/11/2020 16:49

Not too sure that the first part of that statement is true

Hmm Why would I lie on an anonymous internet forum? Do you despise racism? How can I know your statement is true?

virtue signalling has become the modern version of "playing the race card"

No, it hasn't.

SleepingStandingUp · 17/11/2020 16:50

@JudyShakes

But if they're not in Sainsbury's they'll be in another supermarket abusing BAME people. But you don't mind as long as it's not you
Well if all the supermarkets followed them in pissing off racists they'd all have to click and deliver from Amazon and we'd all be safe from interacting with them
user1471565182 · 17/11/2020 16:52

If you ever find yourself saying 'I despise racism but....' just stop there.

cologne4711 · 17/11/2020 16:52

virtue signalling has become the modern version of "playing the race card

No it hasn't, virtue signalling is very different. It's not about being "woke", it's about signalling your virtue to your social media feed, preferably with some cringeworthy hashtags. For example, I would say that someone who makes sure everyone on their social media knows that they donate to food banks is virtue signalling. Nothing to do with race.

GaryTheDemon · 17/11/2020 16:55

One of The tesco ones last year/year before was a black family wasn’t it? All very normal and nice.

Very sad at all the racists being horrendous.

user1471565182 · 17/11/2020 16:55

What like wearing a poppy?

JudyShakes · 17/11/2020 16:56

Don't be daft @SleepingStandingUp - racists will go to the store most convenient for them. And they'll eat in curry houses and get a Chinese takeaway.

Sainsbury's knew exactly what they were doing when they released that ad. It's depressing that it provoked the responses it did but Sainsbury's are just trying to manipulate us. Don't let them.

RainingBatsAndFrogs · 17/11/2020 16:57

LisaLee I am baffled.

If I was 'sick to death' to see 'so many' black assistants in Curry's, or black staff in our local hospital, or black kids in my DC's school, or in our solicitor's office (all examples from the week before lockdown) I would be a racist. So why would it be anything other than racist to complain about black people in adverts?

Black people have had decades and decades of being ignored (at best) or ridiculed and villified (at worst) in our media. And the minute they are represented people object.

Watch the Small Axe series, episode 1 The Mangrove. Watch what happened (it is a true story) to honest hard working black people in this country in the late 1960s. Yes, the age of pop and free love and colour TV and The Pill. Watch what happened. Socially, econimically and in the denial of the thing we hold most dear in this country: the justice system. Some of these people are still alive. The sons and daughters of these people have keen memories of what happened. It was routine. there are women on this very thread telling you the level of racism that is evident every day. So. Don't be surprised when people moaning about - oh gosh - black people in an advert about a supermarket being black are identified as racists.

Sparklfairy · 17/11/2020 16:58

The response is shocking. My cousin grew up in London and was the only white child in his class all through primary school. I grew up 100 miles away in a rural area and my best friend was the only one in our year who wasn't white.

Sainsburys demographic is white middle class though. It's ridiculous. How else could they get away with charging so much more for a shop for exactly the same Heinz Baked Beans? Hate the place.

Disgusting that they've had the reaction they've had. If they had a mixed race gay couple having their first Christmas with their adopted child, I might think okay, woke overkill, but seriously. A black family? Hmm I'm ashamed to be British Sad

PicsInRed · 17/11/2020 16:59

@user1471565182

What like wearing a poppy?
Remembrance Day:

Crowd: "All soldiers' lives matter!"

Twat: "All LIVES matter"

Crowd: Hmm Yeah, fuck off mate.

JudyShakes · 17/11/2020 17:00

@user1471565182

If you ever find yourself saying 'I despise racism but....' just stop there.
Oh was I committing WrongSpeak?
ancientgran · 17/11/2020 17:00

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.