More stories like this, please! A commercial for John Lewis department stores highlights a young boy happily dancing, and causing a little havoc, around his house. What sets this little boy apart from some others: the vibrant makeup that he adorns on his cheeks. Watch the infectious ad below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5od8Wuv_AAY
John Lewis, while primarily known as a department store, does offer other services including insurance. Queerty reported that the commerical,
“for its insurance services has just been released demonstrating some of the damage younger members of the family can inflict on a home. Within it, an exuberant young boy, wearing his mum’s makeup, heels, and a dress, sashays through his home miming to ‘Edge of Seventeen’ by Stevie Nicks. While doing so, he knocks over lamps, dislodges picture frames, smears nail varnish on a banister and spills his sister’s paints.”
With 186,000 subscribers to their YouTube Channel, the commercial posted on October 11th has already been viewed over 339,000 times! It has already garnered 4,200 likes. However, and it a very large, however, the commercial has received nearly double the amount of dislikes – 8,000. {The Million Moms, who are really only 20,000 moms must be hitting that dislike button over and over!} Let’s take a look at some of the comments because they are pretty revealing:
“The kid looks cute, nothing wrong with a boy wearing a dress or make-up. But he’s being awful! Why is the mum sitting there letting him trash the house? Why is his little sister sitting there taking it? It’s not about how he’s dressed, it’s the fact his behaviour is being applauded as him expressing himself and nobody is intervening when he’s being destructive and disrespectful”. -MegaMouse Productions
“This add is gorgeous, we need more, live more Be yourself! and a to the insignificant people that can’t see joy! Haters gonna hate! Diference is beautiful. Remembering that your Jesus ask to love everyone as yourself, so every hate you send your cruel comments our there is your words not his, your sadness, your cruelty…keep that in mind as you are not preaching your are spreading hate and showing how empty you are…” – Fab Rosa
“Male ‘expresses himself’ with zero regard for the negative impact on the females around him. The patriarchy in action. Clever work John Lewis.” – Rosie Hayes
“Delusional, woke, abhorrent hogwash – the most sanctimonious, self-serving example of an advert I’ve ever seen”. – Ellie Y.
John Lewis acknowledged the backlash, and issued a statement through their twitter,
Many of you have contacted us regarding the thinking behind our latest Home Insurance advert. Please find our response below: pic.twitter.com/lbTqFTSry2
— John Lewis & Partners (@JohnLewisRetail) October 14, 2021
What’s revealing about the comments is that many of them refer to the behavior of the boy, turning what some see as a playful, tongue-in-cheek advertisement into a PSA for who knows what. Take a look at some tweets John Lewis & Partners received after their post,
I Asked my 7yo daughter what she thought:
D: ‘rubbish’
M: ‘why?’
D: ‘because you shouldn’t go around smashing everything up’:
M: ‘what did you think about the little girl?’
D: ‘poor her’
M: ‘what do you think of the boy? Would you be friends with him?’
D: ‘no he’s horrible’— Weaselopolis (@NickyHunnam) October 15, 2021
It spectacularly missed the mark. But I think you already know that. I bought insurance today. It was not with you. Your ad celebrated male entitlement and female passivity. Why would that do anything but make me turn away?
— Deborah Siddoway 🐝 💚🤍💜 (@debsiddoway) October 14, 2021
Ah blimey! I loved it! It was funny, expressive, fun & uplifting! People really need to chill the flip out! It’s a joke! Do all the moaners watch TV soaps & think it’s all realistic!
We seem to be living in a time when everyone takes offence at everything. It’s OK to laugh folk— SEREN WATSON (@serenmaria) October 14, 2021
Can’t help but feeling a lot of the complaining came from people who deep down just weren’t happy about LGBt values being portrayed….As a former boy who acted like that, I think it was a great advert, and would have loved to have seen it when I was younger
— Pádraig (@KGi29225152) October 14, 2021
It’s astonishing to see how many people have taken offence to this advert. Maybe don’t watch TV, use social media or go outside even. I wouldn’t be surprised if these people were offended by a cloud because it’s promoting an agenda. Have a drink and chill out everyone!!
— Sebastian Gaudoin (@Seb_Gaudoin) October 14, 2021
When your legal team have to reduce the damage from your own adverts pic.twitter.com/mcrNVRf0Hy
— Doug (@CrumpledApple) October 14, 2021
Advert so reminded me of my nephew who loves to dress in sisters clothes and make videos 😂 just 6 years old. As for people saying girl is being bullied they obviously do not have siblings. Completely normal behaviour. The people complaining have hidden agenda.
— Teri 💙♿️🇵🇸🇮🇪 (@MettlesomeTeri) October 15, 2021
The commercial does have at least one celebrity supporter, musical icon Stevie Nicks, whose “Edge of Seventeen” song is the soundtrack for the ad,
Love this! #EdgeOfSeventeen https://t.co/iEGM4BGRuN
— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) October 13, 2021
What do you think of the commercial Instincters? Is it yet another case of the male patriarchy asserting their power, or do people need to chill the F out? Sound off in the comments below.
(**this post is solely the opinion of this contributing writer and may not reflect other writers, staff or owners of Instinct magazine.)
Sources: Queerty
