To dislike to John Lewis Christmas ad?

[Peashoots]

I get the message behind it but I hated it. Not at all Christmassy, hated the song, hated the aesthetic, just don’t know what they were thinking?

They’re doing nothing for anyone and only thinking about their profit margins. They’re using vulnerable children to tug on your heart strings and profit from their misery. It’s so wrong.

It's all relative though. My experience of foster care was horrific but I have friends who had great experiences. I think sending positive messages out like this one puts out an influence for more people like the FD in the ad to come forward and offer a home for children in the system. If the advert nudges just one good person into exploring fostering its done more good in my eyes than another ad full of commercialised shite. I'm not saying they won't profit, of course they will, but this ad comes with a message and I don't find it exploitative at all.

I was raised in care and I absolutely fucking hate it, it's triggered me no end and so far from the reality I know.

Kids in care being exploited once again, nothing more than a sales gimmick now. JL will get a few sales out of it I'm sure

I think its wonderful. The true spirit of Christmas.

It's raising money for charity. I have friends who have had a terrible foster care experience and others who had a great one. I suspect there are more terrible fosterers than great ones.

I thought it was brilliant, touching and made me think. I can't begin to imagine how horrid it must be for children to be fostered especially at Christmas.

Like a few others I am a bit offended at them getting a local pub singer to destroy Blink 182! 😮#halfjoking .... But the sentiment of the ad is nice.

However, I can't see a single millisecond in the ad that advertises any of John Lewis's wares. Am I missing something?

But it’s nothing about the girl at the door is it?
How about we see it from her point of view - can you even imagine spending Christmas with strange adults in their house? Would you care that one of them had leant your hobby.
In my experience children in care ( and on the brink ) have a history of horrible Christmas’s from other years.Showing the girl for 10 seconds at the end does make the ad all about the dad.

I

One day I hope to see christmas ad that isin’t about ✨family✨

There are so many lonely people out their, without partners, family, not even a friend.
They could bring awareness to that.
And not just bunch of people laughing and
”loving”.
Show how these holidays really are for many.

@DimplesToadfoot I can only imagine. Your first sentence had made me well up actually.
I hope you are having a better experience now and continue to do so💐

@Letthekidsplay why don't you think a huge retailer actually doing something - jobs, donations of food and presents, mentors - is a good thing? Don't you think more big companies should be doing things to support the most vulnerable in society?

And I am care experienced, I have never had, in the multiple placements I was in, someone learn an interest of mine or engage with me. I would have loved that.

As a Social Worker who recently completed a placement in the Fostering Team I think it's absolutely amazing. Made me sob.
There are without a doubt some awful experiences by children in care but the majority of Foster Carers are truly wonderful ime. If this encourages anyone else to apply it's a great thing.

Yes but it's been cleverly edited together!

I feel like they achieved this well with the man in the moon ad.

It’s stuck with me. Not the skateboarding part but the opening the door part which I imagine must be so heartfelt. I’ve been thinking about what the reality might be re foster care.

Not really about JL gifts, so I reckon they’ve hit the right note this time. More about what you can give someone.

That’s absolutely a fair point, yes, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that the “foster dads” motivation was all about himself as the PP said. I’m guessing they’re aiming the ad in such a way to encourage people to think about fostering, maybe (or perhaps I’m being too charitable as clearly there’s self promotion involved).

I do think it would have a different impact if you had a very different experience of the care system, and I fully respect that, but also it's a Christmas ad. You are going to get an idealised version of whatever the subject is; it's not an ad for a charity that's designed to give you a realistic and therefore gloomy perspective. People don't think much about children in care and they certainly don't worry much about teenagers in care, so even though this is a cosy, perfect fostering situation, it's still a nudge to our awareness of the issue.

It doesn't sit right with me. Just too twee and very unrealistic. I've met too many homeless people who have been through the care/fostering system. I don't think romanticising it like this is helpful, except that it makes for a nice Christmas advert. <cynical >

See I like the fairy stories - it’s Christmas FFS I hate this push to make everything grim

You realise Christmas is about 2 homeless refugees having a baby in a shed right?

Also what exactly is grim about a child being given a loving home?

I think they’re exactly right to focus on the dad embarrassing himself while doing something he’s absolutely unsuited to doing, but persevering because it is one of the few things he can do to welcome a stranger child into his home - it’s funny and touching at his expense. I’d have a big problem with misery porn focused on her feeling sorry for herself and scared about a new placement and intimidated by her world but everything is okay because the house was decorated at John Lewis. All the ad is saying is that this is a tough situation for her and he’s trying to make it better if he can.

I saw a video somewhere where a man described a teenager turning up alone in a taxi at his care home, his belongings in black sacks, terrified. He cried because his bed was already made and no one had cared enough to do that before for him. That’s reality but I wouldn’t make a Christmas ad out of it. I’d prefer to change it. At least JL have a practical campaign to back up the ad.

It’s not Mumsnet unless something is described as “grim”

They have been through the foster system, that’s a grim reality, even if new foster parent does try to learn to skateboad

I do think them helping is a good thing. Using it to promote themselves in their Christmas advert is not. It feels very exploitative of a vulnerable group of people.

I agree.

I read it differently, because we didn't see her until right at the end. I saw it as the dad figure really wanting to take up skateboarding but is a bit embarrassed about it. Then when she arrives, I assumed someone had seen his struggles and brought round their rather embarrassed child to teach him. It was only when the last bit about fostering came up that I realised that wasn't the case. But even then I got more of the impression that he was pleased that someone could teach him rather than he'd been learning it for her.
I was expecting all along a very small child to appear and teach him in a cute nostalgic way, which didn't help.
I also didn't have the sound on so maybe there was something said that would have made it more obvious.

But I think it would have been better if she'd been in it from the beginning.
So either they could start by looking at her picture, decorating the room, and getting ready for her to come, alongside him learning to skate.
Or start with her arriving, feeling the outsider, and him trying to get her to feel part of the family. Nothing's working until he sees her skateboarding. He falls off and she's embarrassed by him. Then he starts trying to learn in secret (you can have her peeping out of the window) and at the end they're doing it together.

Good job her hobby was’t gymnastics then.