Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be utterly fed up of this Covid advert?

198 replies

TheTreeThatSatDown · 12/02/2021 18:29

"Can you look them in the eye and tell them you are doing everything to stop the spread of covid".

Emotional manipulation at its best.

OP posts:
pigsDOfly · 12/02/2021 23:53

Of course they're manipulative they're trying to persuade people to act in a certain way.

Every single advertisement that's ever been made is manipulative, whether it's trying to get you to stick to some sort of rule or sell you washing powder, there'd be no point in them otherwise.

donewithitalltodayandxmas · 13/02/2021 00:11

Its nit meant to be enjoyable and the fact your talking about it kind of means they are working

donewithitalltodayandxmas · 13/02/2021 00:13

Also if you ate following then the advert doesn't apply to you anyway

idontlikealdi · 13/02/2021 00:21

I can look them in the eye so it doesn't bother me

TwelvePaws · 13/02/2021 03:29

rawalpindithelabrador

I’m very sorry for my comment.

My response was a more general response to your ‘I’ve seen enough corpses’ one, not about your child or dad. I should have realised how it would come across though and I didn’t. Long, crap day and all that but that but that is no excuse and I am genuinely sorry that I’ve upset you and anyone else reading.

I’m very sorry for the loss of your child and your dad.

Zevia · 13/02/2021 03:44

We get one before every single YouTube video about how restaurants have always 'been there for us', and while they might be closed, they're still open for takeout, so please support them.

Except that restaurants are still open here.

abstractprojection · 13/02/2021 05:01

The worst one is ‘can you really not work form home’ when I think anyone’s whose employer has allowed this (or continues to) is doing so.

Also the coffee one. If people shouldn’t be getting coffee say they have to be closed and put everyone who work in them on furlough.

It’s just blaming individuals for the consequences of their own policies

trappedsincesundaymorn · 13/02/2021 05:27

Mum died at the start of lockdown 1 (March 31st). I always think "look me in the eye and tell me you could have acted sooner, Boris" whenever I see those adverts.

Mummyoflittledragon · 13/02/2021 05:52

Google the 1987 iceberg aids advert. This is incredibly mild in comparison op. Now that was far more scary and you had to have sex to catch aids, not just breathe near someone.

Mummyoflittledragon · 13/02/2021 05:53

@trappedsincesundaymorn

Mum died at the start of lockdown 1 (March 31st). I always think "look me in the eye and tell me you could have acted sooner, Boris" whenever I see those adverts.
Flowers agreed. I also think this.
Lifeinaonesie · 13/02/2021 05:58

@DogsSausages

There are plenty of people who cannot look them in the eye and dont give a damn until it happens to them then they want those staff to look after them
Are there though? I hear this on Mumsnet but don't see any examples of rule breaking in real life. The county police have 1-2 examples of parties but it's a drop in the ocean. Most people are sticking to the rules as far as I can see. So this propaganda does nothing but shift the blame to individuals rather than the utter mess the government has made of all this.
Clackyheels · 13/02/2021 06:19

@StrawberrySquash

I've been sticking to the rules, but that ad just made me angry. People are dying because politicians made a calculation about how many people it was 'okay' to get Covid. They had to do that. They then got unlucky with the Kent strain and they also didn't shut things down when they should. Don't try and pretend if it wasn't for you or me walking round the local park twice in one day these people wouldn't be dying. I think it's a really unhelpful blame the people message. It makes me want to go, 'Sod it, I'm spending Sunday over my friend's.' I won't because I'm not a dick, not because of this ad.
This ^.

It has infuriated me that it is an attempt to blame the public for this shit show. The vast majority are doing their best. If someone needs to go for a drive, it's noones business to judge. We are all doing our best. Can the people who have lead this March into 100,000 + deaths, where we have the worst death rate in the world, can they look them in the eye??

Mummyoflittledragon · 13/02/2021 06:34

Exactly. The government chose to ignore what was happening from the start then purposely chose herd immunity as a strategy. Then was shamed into lockdown 1 when the realisation hit the public would not tolerate such collateral damage.

How easily we forget.

NoWordForFluffy · 13/02/2021 06:41

@trappedsincesundaymorn

Mum died at the start of lockdown 1 (March 31st). I always think "look me in the eye and tell me you could have acted sooner, Boris" whenever I see those adverts.
I'm sorry about your mum. Flowers

DH and I were having a conversation rant about this yesterday and how the ads piss us off because of how shit the government's response has been. I'm not convinced they're getting the required response from the public!

Linked to this is that BoZo said the other day that border controls only really worked when there weren't many cases. Oh, like last Feb / March then, you idiot? I'm not sure we were meant to think that, it was an excuse about now, which made him look stupid regarding last year (to my mind).

We are following the rules. I'm not being guilt-tripped into not leaving the house at all. I can't see anyone modifying their behaviour because of the ads, frankly.

SnuggyBuggy · 13/02/2021 06:43

Never trust anyone who resorts to emotional blackmail if you ask me.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/02/2021 06:44

Doesn’t bother me as much as the ‘Hands,face, space’, which seemed to come on every 3 minutes on Classic. Particularly annoying because having told whoever it was to fuck off as soon as it started, I’d then turn the radio off and forget to switch it on again.
The other will have the same effect soon, I’m sure.

NoWordForFluffy · 13/02/2021 06:44

I don't think many people are forgetting actually, Mummy. Much to their dismay!

I did a YouGov survey about BoZo's handling of the issues since becoming PM yesterday. When I did it, the results were looking rather damning for him.

110APiccadilly · 13/02/2021 06:46

Look my great aunt in the eyes. And tell her why she can't see her great-great niece for the first time before she dies.

(I can't just break the rules and go because she's not got anywhere for us to stay - was planning to go and stay in a Travelodge so she could meet her.)

BoKatan · 13/02/2021 06:48

Around a third of infections take place within hospitals, and a significant chunk take place within work places, so this attempt to blame the public is infuriating.

Eve · 13/02/2021 07:03

Given the figures on the numbers that catch COVID in hospital - this needs a rethink!

IceIceCoffee · 13/02/2021 07:42

I didn’t like the adverts much back when this started, they were even on children’s channels which with school suddenly stopping for many not being able to see their family children had been through enough without that every time they want to watch fireman Sam

Springersrock · 13/02/2021 08:06

This advert comes on the radio at least twice every morning on the 15 minute drive to the yard to see to my horses. I rant about it every morning

I’m sticking to the rules and the vast majority of the public are also. I’m not being guilt tripped into never leaving the house.

It’s the government who should be wondering whether they can look an intensive care nurse in the eye, not Joe Bloggs who may go for an extra walk and buy a bar of chocolate on their way past the shop.

As with all those news reports the BBC were showing from intensive care units a few weeks ago - those who don’t care, or think it’s all bollocks aren’t going to take the blindest bit of notice anyway.

Guilt trips and manipulative adverts just make those who are following the rules switch off

FakeRealist · 13/02/2021 08:21

I'm a bit undecided about this, but responses like this thread seem to be a bit NIMBY if you please!
Expecting to not have to see the effect that it's having on a section of the population, so you don't get affected, and expecting that to be respected and being annoyed that it's not, while also being annoyed that other people are asking for how they have been affected to be respected is a bit hypocritical.
I take the adverts in the same way I do drink driving campaigns, not applicable to me at all because I don't drive, but still a wider issue that needs something doing about it. It may be distasteful to some, but then what's happening is distasteful too.
Although yes, the government and their handling of it is just a disaster, exhorting us to save the NHS when they're the ones (and not just this government) who have put it in the position it's in to start with, so it didn't stand a chance of coping anyway, is a joke. But even they cannot produce a few thousand nurses and doctors out of thin air to help the situation, we have got to work with what we've got.
As a population it's absolutely not totally our fault, but I do think that unless we want it to get worse, we need to take some responsibility right now to get through. A situation can not be your fault, but still your responsibility to try and help resolve.
The government fucked right up with this, but ultimately if we all shrug our shoulders and say "Not my problem" it's going to get worse not better.

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 13/02/2021 08:29

Every time I see that advert I wonder if Rishi Sunak could look me (and 3 million others) in the eye and tell us he supported us financially when we have been banned from working. If he could look us in the eyes and tell us he didn't leave us behind.

He's spent 10 months refusing to meet with representatives of the Excluded UK campaign for people excluded from both furlough and SEISS, so I suspect he couldn't look us in the eye.

Www.excludeduk.org in case you're unfamiliar with the issue.

poppycat10 · 13/02/2021 08:41

I hate those adverts - both the TV and radio ads. So nannying and so pointless. Those who want to break the rules will just carry on, they're not going to be taken in by these adverts.

And yes, when I meet a friend for exercise of course we are meeting to socialise, otherwise we'd just walk or run alone! But we run 10k, or walk 5k, too, so we are getting exercise along the way and we'll go further with company than we would on our own as we spur each other on.