Why are people boycotting Boots? Are you?

[Deadbeatex]

For full disclosure I haven't seen the advert yet, but I'll probably end up searching for it if I don't come across it naturally during viewing in the next few days.

I've seen the #boycottboots and have worked out it's to do with their new Christmas ad. What's the issue? Are you boycotting Boots or do you think people are overreacting?

Randomly choosing the poll options simply because as stated I've not seen the ad so I don't currently have an opinion either way

YABU I'm boycotting
YANBU it's an overreaction

Really? I can think of TWO ads if we include the Boots one. I can think of dozens more than don't.

As ever, it depends who is being cancelled!

No, they're only against THEIR 'culture' being cancelled.

??

Exactly - it was a throwaway comment, an observation. Bit bluntly put perhaps, but meh.
Like people tend to do, especially when it's non stop coverage of news on TV nowadays, having to come up with something new to say over the same story on loop.
As for her acting, I know her as Martha's mum in Dr Who and she's great in that

Then surely this boycott is 'just people looking to be offended, when there really is nothing to be offended about'.

But ... but ... there were 5 black people out of 20 in that Tesco house party - that's 25%. The percentage of black people in the UK is only 4% so there should only have been 2 😡 It's wokeness gone mad!! 😜

I was thinking the exact same thing

Anyone boycotting Boots because of this tonge-in-cheek advert showing an imaginary version of an imaginary event (Santa’s workshop) must have made the most Olympian-size convoluted brain gymnastics to decide to be offended!
I imagine that those objecting to the drag queens featured in it are jumping on the bandwagon of outrage that accompanied the depiction of a religious scene in the opening of the Paris games this year!

That’s what I thought of it too! She gets the job done with great ease and efficiency !
she has amazing arms !

It was mine too until I saw the Disney one!

I saw a great comment on TT yesterday where someone said:

"Don't worry Boots - the men that are complaining will still be in your store on Christmas Eve last minute panic buying their presents"! 😂

Edited to add: The truth just hurts for some men!

I am not boycotting them as such because I haven’t shopped with them for more than twenty years! There was something about them I didn’t like so I simply stopped. I will take no notice of their adverts.

You're right.
What she did say was

"We've gone from the rich diversity of the abbey to a terribly white balcony. I'm very struck by that!

It was an ignorant racist comment-type terribly white balcony into youtube and you can hear the words straight out of her own mouth-words for which she later apologised.

I too was struck by the terribly black Nelson Mandela Family.

See how ignorant and stupid that sounds. A white family in England is nothing to marvel at, any more than a black family-royal or otherwise-would be anything to marvel at in any of the countries in Africa.

However, the fact that this ignorant, shit stirring racist actress was given the main role in Boots is really not the issue with the advert-although I do wonder if she was given it to deflect away the main problem with this advert-knowing that some poor thinkers would not be able to see past her and assume the controversy was based on race.

It is not.

The real issue is that Boots have decided it is more important to appeal to the trans community than real women. They are terribly trans.

There are more women than trans and if we were able to collectively howl in protest and not spend any more money with them, then Boots would give one last yelp and disappear down the drain-a lesson for others.

They bank on the fact that it is easy to dupe women into thinking-that people protesting about their advert are doing so because they are racist.

And of course, it has worked. This advert is about pushing women out and bringing men in.

SinnerBoy

"Offhand, my Egyptian neighbours always put a tree and decorations up. My daughter's friend, with Bangladeshi parents, has the same."

My Egyptian Muslim husband is always the first one in our family to say "lets go and buy a Christmas tree" and the one to get the decorations out. He obviously sees Jesus as the second prophet after Mohammed and does not believe he was the son of God but he loves to celebrate Christmas as a cultural tradition.

Just a guess but I wonder if Boots chose her as an actress as she is a trans activist and has a trans child.
More background research….me thinks

Well yes, centuries of evidence. They marry into a very specific demographic.

I didn't know that @StandingSideBySide but how very interesting,

Of course, many women-seen here on this very thread- will refuse to see the trans angle and believe people are angry because a black actress has been used.. They have been duped.

They are very foolish but we won't stand up for ourselves, so why should we expect men to do so.

As I said in an earlier post, maybe next year the Boots Christmas advert can have the theme of Turkeys Voting for Christmas which is what many women appear to be when it comes to Trans issues.

Cancel culture would be if the actress was flamed and never worked again. Individuals choosing to shop somewhere else isn't cancel culture.

She was making a comment more on how diverse it had been in the Abbey. Which is a nice thing. It was just a comment on the contrast. The entire bit has been posted on this thread many many times. It was a passing comment. Many people do it every day. It wasn't commenting on race, more on diversity.

have you left Mumsnet and looked at the uproar on social media?? It is about race out there. And the use of of "their" rather than he/she. There is no duping, just the reality.

@Dramatic it was a bad choice of actress given her ‘balcony’ comment was the most complained about comment on TV in 2023.
Boots should have done some research on the people they chose to represent them.

MN is all I do and I’m glad I don’t read all that crap.
Its just breading hate!!

Id keep away for your own sanity

I think everyone who cares about women's issues knows exactly what the problem is, even though we are urged to look elsewhere.

The race issue is a blind to distract us in an attempt to slip this pro trans advert in through the back door and hope that we will accept it.

If it really were about race, then why on earth isn't the same controversy being applied to every business that uses non white people in their advert. I mean don't you ask yourself that!

Nope, I think the race thing is a pretend fire while the real fire rages.

Why would they bother to do that?

Well, because, the complaints about this pro-trans advert will be swallowed up in a race debate.

The pro trans lobby, emboldened (as if they weren't bold enough already) will see no reason why more adverts featuring them shouldn't be made-after all they will say-not many complained about the Boots advert. Women accept us-they don't mind.

In this way, the normalization of Trans continues.

She was making a comment more on how diverse it had been in the Abbey. Which is a nice thing. It was just a comment on the contrast. The entire bit has been posted on this thread many many times. It was a passing comment. Many people do it every day. It wasn't commenting on race, more on diversity.

It's all very well defending the comment as throwaway, not deliberate, she apologised, she didn't mean it was terrible etc etc.

But it is also true that if anyone white said that about a prominent black family they absolutely would not be excused in that way. They'd be hauled over the coals for racism and cancelled immediately. I'm not condoning or condemning that or taking sides especially but it is true. There are those who would argue that that's fine because black people can't be racist and white people can't suffer racism and the historical injustice means the discrepancy is OK. But there are many others who just see it as unfair and "political correctness gone mad" based on a straightforward sense of fairness. You really don't have to be Tommy Robinson, a racist or anti-black to be able to see the issue. People have a sense of fairness, and things like this piss people off. It appears to be putting black people on a pedestal and saying that it's OK to say that being white is bad.

Whatever the political intricacies may be, and however much people who can't grasp nuance think it's just about hating seeing a black Mrs Claus, it's really not a good way to foster actual inclusivity and cohesion.

Ads with an ethnic mix, however, are normal and welcomed by most people and I would argue do generally foster inclusivity. There's a massive difference.

I also agree with the point that there's a genderist agenda hiding behind the race issue and using it as a cover. "Of course only racist bigots could possibly have a problem with this ad. You hate black people!"

It was a racist comment not a silly comment.
If people can't recognise the racism, just imagine a white actress describing a famous family as 'terribly black'.. would they then go on to get any leading roles?
I can't imagine ever thinking let alone saying out loud that any family is terribly white/brown/black.