M and S ad - Mrs Claus

[Northernlurker]

Loved it!

She is called Mrs Claus because if she was called Ms Smith no-one would know who she was Fuck all to do with taking a mans name

shes not even fucking real

I like it

But then I liked the asda advert from
Years ago
When the mum
Did everything

I thought it was a great advert - brought a tear to my eye.

As another with fairly twistsble knickers, on the subject of sexism I read it not as woman "having to stay at home and hide talent, rather seriously cool women gets things done and doesn't feel the need to crow about it.

I thought it was better than their usual efforts, but still rather dull. I like JL - much better than last year, but I much prefer the Aldi one, who'd have thought you could get sentimental over a carrot? I'm looking forward to Sainsbury's one. Their 'Mog ' one was by far the best one of the lot last year.

I love it (hate the JL one which I usually love - Monty & Mabel my fave). Fancy the red shoes for myself !

If I could tweak it would make Mrs Claus have ugg type boots & better gloves . Feel Christmassy now.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a bit silly about this. My knickers are obviously the most twistable. I'll try to like it.

Do you think Mrs Claus is meant to represent all the women everywhere who really sort out the lovely gifts in secret while giving all the credit to the big man in red?

But rewind a bit... trampolines are "working class"?? Lol really?? Do posh children not like bouncing or something?

Ps Amy I think you are wonderful.

Thank you MarriedinMaui that's so nice of you to say!

GO AMY!!!

I liked super efficient sexy older Mrs Claus with a helicopter.

But the story line could have so easily be changed so she wasn't:

• protecting her dear overworked husband with an Important Job from exhaustion
• hiding all her coolness
• pretending she wasn't busy

E.g. She could have realised a letter came too late and used all her fantastic equipment and skills to deliver the present on time, then when mr Claus came back they could have congratulated each other on their teamwork.

Not that riled by the sister/brother storyline. Thoughtful presents do show you care for someone.

I didn't like it either and had to turn it off. Secretly clever woman and a silly man, I don't think it does either sex much justice.

That being said, Mrs Claus looked fabulous

Its definitely won Xmas in our house!

Thanks Dust! I agree with a lot of that too.

On another note it's reminded me to start thinking about presents. Who can I write to in order to arrange them for my brothers and parents?

I'll be your Ms Claus Amy, I love Christmas shopping! I may not agree with you but keep that fire and come to the feminist boards on here.

I loved the advert and did compare it to asdas awful mum does everything ad from the other year. FWIW, it reminds me of my family, we all destroyed each other's stuff and would realize when we'd gone to far then would try to do something nice.

Amy, the answer is your iPad of course! Keep on being angry, I was you 40 years ago.....
However, I took my DH' s name, was a sahm for many years too. It was my choice, it worked for me. Incidentally, DH and I are a team, we are equal partners, at home and in our business. I just wish I could get away with that red dress.....too many mince pies, alas!

Thank you glenthebattleostrich! I find it satisfying when I've finished my Christmas shopping but I'm terrible at deciding what to buy for people, though the results have been good on recent birthdays and last Christmas. This is a great place to talk about feminism and I'm grateful for being made to feel I'm able to. My brothers and I terrorise one another and all terrorise our parents, works for us

averylongtimeago that is the answer to most of my conundrums! My mum took my dad's name when they got married too. I think it should be a free choice and I wouldn't judge anyone for it, I just think there's currently not a free choice about it and this is shown by how few men take the woman's name (not saying yours wasn't, just generally). You and your husband sound great running a business together! And mince pies are always a priority over even dresses...in fact all food is

Oh I've just remembered that "behind every Christmas there's mum" or something advert. That was bad.

I have huge respect for Mrs Claus for taking the second mince pie. YES.

"- protecting her dear overworked husband with an Important Job from exhaustion

• hiding all her coolness
• pretending she wasn't busy"

But the letter was addressed to her and the present was from her...

Marriedin apparently trampolines are working class, or so said the MN jury not too long ago.

Amy you give me hope for the next generation, thank you. And you're right, it's a fucking sexist advert, there's no need to back down.

Thank you Moo for the kind compliment!

Oh and if either of my brothers destroyed any of my shoes I'd not go to my parents, I'd go for retribution. Rooms would be trashed.

Meh.

I wasn't overly impressed. Like the little brother/sister dynamic, which is common, but didn't really feel the rest of it.

We loved the trampolining wildlife in this house. :)

And it was old school sexism, based on the old 'advice' given to girls: don't be smarter, don't be better, don't win if you want the boy to like you. Let them think they're better.

I think once you understand sexism, it's hard to switch off when reading or watching things. It becomes part of your daily life the same way you would see bad or good behaviour. You don't see someone behaving badly and not mentally make a judgement. Whether you say something or not that is another matter.

Yes the advert is sexist. Woman stays at home to do all the had work while her husband delivers the presents. (In general most delivery people are men)

The little boy's bad behaviour rewarded by mrs clause when the Santa would have refused. Have you been good or bad? Does it mean that the woman is more caring while santa is more strict and would have stuck to his rules based on how kids have behaved all year? Mums have a soft spot for little children. (Where have I heard that? )

Mrs. C working from home because she has to take care of the home while her husband goes traveling. The elves are like their children.

Santa is an old man stuck in his ways, while mrs. C loves Spending money on more upmarket gadgets while making life round the house easier to bear.

Let's hope 50 shades of red does include the colour of her menstrual blood because that would be sexist not to. (Joke maybe not).
Actually, joking aside, isn't there a study that showed women wore more read when ovulating? Wrong age though.

I think what everyone seems to be missing is the letter was written to Mrs Claus - she was granting a request made to her, not doing her husband's bidding. Not quite sure why the little boy was writing to her not her husband though - I'm not sure a six year old boy would have any concept that Mrs Claus might be better at shoes, being a woman and all

Tbh what I find much more classist than a MC family on an M&S ad (you don't say!) is this stereotypical notion here about WC families and trampolines. Yuck!

And how do we know that 'Mrs C stays at home to do all the hard work' anyway? We don't know what she does every other day of the year. Making some pretty sexist assumptions there!

The ad is clearly aimed at a middle-aged, middle-class, female demographic - and you know what, it's not sexist to suggest that that's the demographic which will be doing the most spending over Christmas. Look at this very Christmas board - legions of us, getting overexcited and massively enthusiastic about everything from stocking fillers to table decorations. The forums my DH uses don't have men discussing the best way to stuff a turkey or what to buy the MiL who has everything, much less a whole board dedicated to Christmas. Perhaps if we told them to do it all themselves, the forums would have stuff like that on them. (And before I'm flamed, I know there's loads of men who do all the cooking at Christmas, and all year round.)

If we love all the preparation, that's fine, and it's not sexist. It's only sexist if you don't have a choice in the matter, and it's just expected of you, and tasks aren't shared equally. And I can't see that happening to Mrs C in this ad at all. She pilots a helicopter ffs, how cool is that?!

Oh and Amy, you're pretty great. Never remove those twistable knickers