"Christmas Truce" supermarket ad causes kerfuffle in UK

Occam's Banana

Occam's Banana

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RELATED: The "Christmas Truce" of 1914

h/t Travis Holte @ LRC: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/how-dare-those-rotten-capitalists/

How Dare Those Rotten Capitalists
make a television ad for Christmas that shows the absurdity of War?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM


Complaints flood in over Sainsbury's Christmas in the trenches advert: Viewers' anger over use of WWI to promote supermarket
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ts-flood-use-WWI-imagery-promote-company.html
Jack Crone (14 November 2014)

Hundreds of viewers have reacted angrily to the new Sainsbury’s Christmas advert - released just two days ago - for its 'cynical' use of First World War imagery to promote the supermarket's brand.

A total of 240 people have registered complaints with the advertising watchdog with the majority of those objecting to the supermarket's distasteful use of the conflict's 1914 Christmas Truce.

The watchdog has not yet launched an investigation but says it will continue to assess complaints over the dramatic three-minute recreation of the famous truce - when British and German soldiers laid down their weapons and met in no man's land.

The controversial advert has so far divided opinion - being branded both 'cynical' and 'wonderful' - and one expert has even claimed watching the clip left him feeling 'unclean' and 'upset'.

Britain's third biggest supermarket maintains the commercial is a 'sensitive' recreation of the moment British and German soldiers laid down their arms to exchange gifts and play football, and said the response has been 'overwhelmingly' positive.

After receiving 240 complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today told MailOnline it has not yet launched an investigation but will continue to assess people's calls.

Sainsbury's reconstructed the trenches scenes with the help of a war historian to celebrate the supermarket's 20 years of support for the Royal British Legion, which runs the annual poppy campaign.

While some called it moving and brilliant others were saying it was an 'exploitative' way for a big business to advertise itself.

Neil Kelley, an advertising expert at Leeds Beckett University told the Mirror the advert made him feel 'unclean' adding: 'It’s a lovely story from history but I find it upsetting they’ve used the First World War as a vehicle to promote a supermarket.

[... more at link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ts-flood-use-WWI-imagery-promote-company.html ...]
 
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'People are saying that it's not clear from the outset that this is an advert.
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What'd they think it was? A news report?:confused:

Just a thought...
I wonder if they would be in a "kerfuffle" if it had been produced by the government or royal family instead of a *gasp* supermarket.


We haven't yet launched an investigation. We will carefully assess the complaints to establish grounds for further action.'
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Well there ya go, the watchdogs at the ACA are on the case. I'm sure they'll get this whole "kerfuffle" straightened out before Christmas - or not but it's good to know they're keeping an eye on the situation.:rolleyes:


Neil Kelley, an advertising expert at Leeds Beckett University told the Mirror the advert made him feel 'unclean' adding: 'It’s a lovely story from history but I find it upsetting they’ve used the First World War as a vehicle to promote a supermarket. 'The sentiment behind it, sup*porting the RBL, is sound, but there’s something that doesn’t sit right with the use of the war. It doesn’t bring home any of the horrors... I think there’s a possibility veterans may be aggrieved too.'
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I guess Neil Kelley preferred the penguin ad.

The founders of clothing company Holroyd and Pickles tweeted: 'How do you think my great great grandfather would feel knowing his bravery had been reduced to advertising Sainsbury's?'
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Who knows? Maybe that was the one thing that happened during that awful war that made him feel like a human being. Maybe he liked candy bars. I guess we'll never know because he's dead. BTW, a lot of real shitbags made money off your great great grandfathers bravery. I hope you saved some outrage for them.

On a side note...
I'd be more worried about what your great great grandfather thinks of the clothes you sell at Holroyd and Pickles, cuz' I visited your website and they're hideous. How do you think my great great grandmother would feel knowing her femininity had been reduced to wearing gray sacks with words like "revolting" stamped on them? Who do I call to register a complaint?:toady:
http://www.holroydandpickles.com/hp-shop/

Juliette AdAstra added her concerns, saying: 'If there's anything more tasteless and cynical than the Sainsbury's Christmas advert, I've yet to see it'.
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Juliette AdAstra lives a sheltered life. Bless her heart...
I can think of a million trillion things more "tasteless and cynical" than that ad.



My opinion...

I liked the ad and the word "kerfuffle".

One more thing...

If these folks are so worried about exploitation, they should really be in a "kerfuffle" with the MIC, their cohorts in the government and the propagandists in the media pushing for the next/current military engagement(s). *Sigh* Now I'm in a "kerfuffle" and I want a candy bar.:(
 
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Suzanimal said:
My opinion...

I liked the ad and the word "kerfuffle".

One more thing...

If these folks are so worried about exploitation, they should really be in a "kerfuffle" with the MIC, their cohorts in the government and the propagandists in the media pushing for the next/current military engagement(s). *Sigh* Now I'm in a "kerfuffle" and I want a candy bar.:(
Click to expand...

Haha. me too! me too! <removed smilie> *too coquettish*

"kerfuffle" is an awesome word AND I also want a candy bar :)
 
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Put me in the 'moving and brilliant' camp.

So let me get this straight, these people are OK with advertising relating to Christmas, cheapening the alleged birthday of the Messiah with a commercial endeavor (alleged because He was actually born in September, on Tabernacles), but God forbid they cite WW1?

So these people seriously think WW1 is holier than GOD???
 
GunnyFreedom said:
Put me in the 'moving and brilliant' camp.

So let me get this straight, these people are OK with advertising relating to Christmas, cheapening the alleged birthday of the Messiah with a commercial endeavor (alleged because He was actually born in September, on Tabernacles), but God forbid they cite WW1?

So these people seriously think WW1 is holier than GOD???
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It's worse than that. These idiots are upset about an ad promoting peace to celebrate the Prince of Peace. I bet if the ad showed modern British soldiers stationed around the world and ended with a "Thank you for keeping us free" there wouldn't have been any complaints. The complainers are evil. That's all I will say.
 
GunnyFreedom said:
Put me in the 'moving and brilliant' camp.

So let me get this straight, these people are OK with advertising relating to Christmas, cheapening the alleged birthday of the Messiah with a commercial endeavor (alleged because He was actually born in September, on Tabernacles), but God forbid they cite WW1?

So these people seriously think WW1 is holier than GOD???
Click to expand...

"Whatever you do, don't mention the war." is often heard in the UK. I think it is a terrific Christmas message. It works because both sides in the conflict shared a common culture and is impolite today, because it illustrates that conflict today is between different cultures that can not be reconciled.
 
Should become a full length feature film. Honestly. Along with the high commands moves to dismantle this humanity in the midst of their war. And the subsequent use of gas. And tied all in and wrapped around Wilfred's "Dolce et decorum est."

Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen, 1893 - 1918
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

305_wowen.jpg




A grand film that would be.
 
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I remember reading about this when I was just a boy, and it brought a tear to my eye then, just as it did now.

I agree.

+rep


GunnyFreedom said:
Put me in the 'moving and brilliant' camp.

So let me get this straight, these people are OK with advertising relating to Christmas, cheapening the alleged birthday of the Messiah with a commercial endeavor (alleged because He was actually born in September, on Tabernacles), but God forbid they cite WW1?

So these people seriously think WW1 is holier than GOD???
Click to expand...
 
this thread is....weird.

you have an hilarious and entertaining reply to the article which sprung some weird back and forth banter full of flattery, jokes, and smilies- mixed into that was serious replies about war seemingly unrelated to the ad in the OP.

to add to the confusion you have a fawtly towers clip, a sheldon cooper sarcasm pic, and a post demonstrating a profound disagreement over something. what a kerfuffle!
 
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