John Lewis and it’s ‘gender relaxed’ ad

[SouthernFashionista]

Curious to hear thoughts on the new ad from John Lewis. It strikes me as sinister. Why does a small child have to send out a message of LGBTQ equality? Why is he acting like a drag queen.

Can you imagine if an advertiser made an ad with a kid in a flat wearing a tracksuit, trashing their house? They be branded a nasty thug

Absolutely. But cos it's a naice house etc etc, its "spirited"

And same as pp by Ted, I too grew up with an abuser and walking on eggshells and being silent and passive until the worst was over. And that advert with the silent daughter and bemused looking mother take me right back. Not in a good way.

Absolutely not playful self expression and yes, I immediately thought of Desmond - because that’s who the boy seems to be styled as.

Well my references are about two decades out of date because that boy reminded me of Veruca Salt smashing up the chocolate factory. Wilful, brattish behaviour which IIRC got her weighed as a bad egg and sent down the garbage shoot...

@WinterfellsStarbucksConcession

I thought it was funny it made me smile, but then I can't get too worked up about adverts 🤷‍♀️

Lots of adverts give me the rage, a top one is the Dettol advert for an automatic handsoap pump which they tried to sell on the basis you wouldn't have to touch a germy pump, right before you washed your hands anyway.

Claire Pointon, customer director for John Lewis said: “We wanted to inject joy, freedom and humour into this campaign. The story we landed on fulfils this, with the idea that when you have John Lewis’ Home Insurance with the option of accidental damage cover, you don’t need to worry anymore, you can just ‘let life happen’.
“The ad playfully highlights the things that could happen as Reggie dances around, freely expressing himself, from knocked vases and picture frames, to paint on the carpet and nail varnish along the bannisters.”

I think the class point that pp have made is very good. This little boy is allowed to wreck things. Other little boys in less John Lewis homes would not be.

@YoBeaches

Claire Pointon, customer director for John Lewis said: “We wanted to inject joy, freedom and humour into this campaign. The story we landed on fulfils this, with the idea that when you have John Lewis’ Home Insurance with the option of accidental damage cover, you don’t need to worry anymore, you can just ‘let life happen’. “The ad playfully highlights the things that could happen as Reggie dances around, freely expressing himself, from knocked vases and picture frames, to paint on the carpet and nail varnish along the bannisters.”

Meanwhile the sister's attempt to express herself is thwarted when little Reggie deliberately knocks her paints onto the floor.

It's a shit ad showing a badly behaved male child trashing a house while the females sit passively by and allow it.

More than anything, I think this sends a confusing message about what their policy covers and seems to be mis-selling.

@H8H8H8

But surely insurance doesn't usually cover you for wilful damage, which this looks to be? Spoilt boy goes round the house trashing it and nobody stops him. Tell that to the insurance company and see if they wear it.

That was my first thought too! Completely rubbish ad for that alone.

Plus JLP home insurance is ridiculously expensive (at least, my last quote was).

Exactly. It's a stupid ad; JL need to trash it like that house, and think again with an intelligent head on.

The ad playfully highlights the things that could happen as Reggie dances around, freely expressing himself, to quote C Pointin

The behaviour isn't dancing around. It's maliciously intended - you don't accidentally hit 6 wall pictures, smear stuff down a banister and tip paint on the carpets. He's a horrible brat - how can anyone say that is playful - it's deliberate, no doubt also deliberate by JL, to get attention .
Hopefully all the comments here saying JL insurance is expensive and that their insurance probably won't cover deliberate vandalism like this also has Claire Pointin the Customer Director laughing along.

The kid wants a good smack and I daresay so do the entire marketing team

@Tedimhoardingrightsosaur

Can you imagine if an advertiser made an ad with a kid in a flat, wearing a tracksuit, trashing their house? They be branded a nasty thug.

Absolutely.

Also, interesting that there is no father figure in the ad. I doubt that the public would buy into the "man of the house" sitting back passively while that happened.

Yep, they couldn't have a father figure there, because it would be considered weak to let him watch all that going on. The mother figure, fine.

The problem with the John Lewis ad creatives, is they don't know they're being sexist. They don't know what they don't know. They are sexist, but they don't realise it.

There must be a checklist of 'acceptables' that they have to tick, surely?

Would this ad work the same way if it was a girl? Would this ad work the same if there was a dad instead of a mum?

They let this boy act way more sexualised that they let the girl in the previous advert.

Why?

Sexism.

Boys get sexualised too, John Lewis.

@rabbitwoman

why are the two females in it so passive?

Wasn't the predecessor to this advert, a few years ago now, a little girl doing exactly the same thing? Yes, I remember, because my mum thought it was based on me!!

No. The girl was dancing alone and almost accidentally causing damage because she was in a world of her own

This is a boy deliberately causing damage.

Also, interesting that there is no father figure in the ad. I doubt that the public would buy into the "man of the house" sitting back passively while that happened.

There is a father figure in the 2015 ad, but he isn't there when she is doing most of the dancing and she doesn't actually cause any damage.

I didn't see (or register) the Tiny Dancer advert. It's quite different to the new one. The girl is not doing anything deliberately when she catches the furnishings, it's incidental to her dancing, not part of her act; and yes, she doesn't actually seem to damage anything, just near misses. Her dance to me is a copy of the Maddie Ziegler dance in the Sia/Chandelier video, just with different music.

@dementedma

It's a shit ad showing a badly behaved male child trashing a house while the females sit passively by and allow it.

That's excellently succinct.

What does it have to do with LGBT? He’s a young child dressing how he wants and doing what he wants. Really weird interpretation to put on it to assume it’s making some point about gender or sexuality.

Lots of little kids pick clothes that adults would code as being for the opposite sex, because they’re not old enough to have internalised rules about clothes. It’s a pretty normal thing and nothing to be concerned about.

The only redeeming quality of this as is that we as a population need to stop judging boys dressing as they please. Boys dressing as they like should be embraced and is less likely to lead to them being told 'you are a girl' 🤦🏼‍♀️

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully

The only redeeming quality of this as is that we as a population need to stop judging boys dressing as they please. Boys dressing as they like should be embraced and is less likely to lead to them being told 'you are a girl' 🤦🏼‍♀️

Totally sexualised. Like a wee drag artist. Yuck

JapanJetplane you really think this child chose the clothes and wrote the advert do you?

I've complained to the ASA.

We've had 3 new TVs from insurance (not JL) and all 3 were child induced. Two were deliberately thrown (one per child) and one was DD aged about 2 so we thought possibly not deliberate.