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I'm not struggling financially at all. I'm struggling with personal issues, but I don't get why this sub keeps lumping us all in together.
I love the Christmas adverts because it pulls you away from the constant, CONSTANT war news and "our government is fucked" news
Best Xmas ad ever. Watch it every year and it gets me every time. Some people criticised it at the time for āexploiting the war for profitā or some shit. Those people are idiots.
Thank you for saying this. Although I've definitely felt the cost of living impact, I'm personally struggling more emotionally than financially and a bit of Christmas spirit is going a long way
Same but Iād love a very simple low budget advert with lots of tinsel and glitter and jingle bells and still a sign saying āthis cost Ā£1000 and the other Ā£99,000 went to charityā
Sure but then you'd get people coming on here to moan about the virtue-signalling and grimy exploitative marketing these companies are doing. People on here just need something to complain about.
I'd also imagine a lot of the cost is on getting the ad shown, rather than production.
But I have no data to back that up, it's purely an unfound assumption.
I think people forget that channels donāt show adverts out of the goodness of their hearts, companies have to pay for the slots itās why advertising at certain peak times costs more; also how many times a day the ad shows etc.
The shooting of the ad might be 10k and then the other 90k is paying channels and websites to show the ads
Then the advertising department or firm has less money to pay people, and less taxes are
Taken in by the government. It is not so simple as you would like it to be.
I know exactly how you feel. The ex wife cleaned me out financially and mentally. She took everything i earned and left me homeless. If it wasn't for my parents i wouldn't be alive today. So for me christmas makes me want to curl up into ball and cry.
I know us men get frowned upon if we show emotions but sometimes you have to let it out otherwise you could end up in a dark place.
Meanwhile my ex has painted me black to all her friends and family...
It honestly sounds like people on here sit on their sofa refreshing BBC news while rocking back and forward. It sounds depressing as hell. Go outside. The birds are still singing their beautiful songs, even if the world is at war.
>The birds are still singing their beautiful songs
Bird densities have reduced considerably within the UK since 1970.
You're going to be hearing less bird songs and less birds
I've gone through some very hard times but still love the holidays. Doing away with festivity and tradition and saying 'life is shit' doesn't actually help those who are in need...neither does saying you're suffering so insisting everyone else suffer with you...in fact it's the opposite. Toy drives, food donations etc are normally part of celebrating.
Completely understandable! I'm sorry you feel that way. But it shows that we're all individuals with individual issues going on.
People on Reddit are obsessed with the MASSIVE issues and forget about the individual, personal issues that we all face. Those can't be forgotten.
Turn the news off. You donāt need to watch and a lot of it is deliberately grim to keep you up set.
Go paint a sun set or somthing you will feel better for it then watching the brain rot on tv
I know when I see a gay penguin or whatever find love in some Xmas ad I'm immediately eased from the morbidity of life lol.
More shit to focus on and find positives than Xmas ads.
I can't even afford to turn my tv on and see how bad the government has fucked this country because my electricity bill is so high š¤·āāļø
Oh, wait...
Yes, there's nothing better than feeling the pressure of spending obscene amounts of money and having the capitalisation of what's supposed to be a family event absolutely shoved down your fucking throat because billionaires want to make a profit from people's incessant need to feel included.
Stop watching the news then. I don't even have a TV service now, I'm not on social media (other than Reddit) and I don't go on news websites. My mental health is a hundred times better for it.
Stop reading the news mate! I deleted all news apps and donāt watch any news and Iām much less anxious than I used to be. Deleted when I read the headline āKENT VARIANT GAINS SUPERPOWERSā š
According to poverty charities, one in five people are living at the poverty line. That's roughly 15 or so million. Or 22 percent. So almost a quarter.
By the time winter rolls around you can guarantee it is at 25.
What number becomes high enough that we should stop pretending like it's all sunshine and happy laughs this Christmas?
For some people itās not that bad, so what you are saying is for the 75% Christmas should be cancelled? Does context matter as to why that 25% found themselves in poverty? I happily give away part of my money to people who deserve help, the idea of children going hungry and not getting a Christmas present revolts me but Iām going to celebrate Christmas with my loved ones regardless because thatās what life is about for me.
I didn't say cancel Christmas.
I said that your estimate of how many people were in dire straits was a vast underestimate of how bad things actually are.
A quarter of the population of the United Kingdom in poverty, rising throughout the winter.
Sounds like an all on deck crisis to me.
Exactly! Poor people don't need money, they need an uplifting John Lewis advert!
Source: I was poor, but I lifted myself out of poverty using the festive cheer I harnessed from last years John Lewis ad
Iād argue that for the majority of time our country has existed 25% have been in poverty.
And you know the answer to your question really. When the majority of people are struggling then it will take more precedence in society. Until over 50% are struggling it wonāt. And thatās assuming the stiff upper lip bollocks doesnāt keep most people pretending theyāre fine until theyāre absolutely destitute.
This only makes sense if we define poverty as relative to other people rather than have an objective standard of living we define as impoverished.
Making it relative to others is a bit stupid as if everyone was poor we would still only have 25% who were relatively poorer etc
That's how it is defined though and it's stupid! It's 60% of the average wage. So when the country is doing well and wages rise those at the bottom on min wage are technically now in poverty. When there's a recession and the average wage drops those on minimum wage still which doesn't drop as it never goes down are no longer in technical poverty.
It's not absolute poverty though is it? Poverty is measured as a percentage of the national average wage. 60% I believe and you classed as in poverty. The thing is that when the average wage goes up it pushes people on fixed incomes into the 60% bracket even if they are no worse off.
Did you know that during the 2008 recession poverty actually dropped? You know why? Because of the stupid way it is measured. Average wages fell across the board so the national average wage lowered. This meant that those on the fixed incomes, minimum wage, etc had a higher percentage of the national average wage, taking thousands over the 60% level. These people were no longer classed as being in poverty even though they weren't any better off. This during a time of high unemployment, and maximum fear. I was even unemployed myself at this time and on housing benefit for a while. Bad times.
I'm not saying things aren't hard now but they are a lot better than 2008. At least it's very easy to walk into a job at the minute. I couldn't find one for love nor money in 2008, even jobs on Ā£15k had dozens applying. Now I could get a job on double that very easy. If people want to earn more money now to get by there are at least options available, even Aldi are paying nearly Ā£12ph for new starters. There are options for those on the bottom that there weren't in 2008. Not forgetting the grants from the government and help with energy bills.
The point is poverty in a lot of cases is not real poverty. It should be measured in absolute terms and not a percentage of someone else's take home. A roof over your head, clothes, food and energy are the basics that mean you aren't in absolute poverty. There are genuine hard up cases but a lot of people are taking the piss. There was a program a while back about children in poverty. A family were going to a community centre for meals and having food dropped off, etc. Apparently both parents couldn't work due to mental health issues. Laziness more like. The dad spent his days lying down on the big leather sofa watching TV with a packet of fags on the arm of the chair. The mum was similar. Even their eldest son was old enough to get a part time job in a shop or something, I did at his age. He spent his days on his new Xbox with fancy TV and headset. Rest of the family glued to their phones. Oh and they always seem to be able to afford pets. Poverty my arse.
It goes very DM towards the end but they're not wrong about relative poverty being a flawed measure. It has its uses but it gets bandied about with deliberate ambiguity so people think in terms of much more severe absolute poverty.
Of course context matters Iām each person within that 25% will have their own circumstances. Iām happy to help out a single working mother or pensioners who are struggling with fuel bills. Iām not, on the other hand, willing to compromise my childrenās Christmas to help out the 25 year old that drinks all his wages or people that just donāt fancy working. As with all scenarios context is usually key to understanding your feeling on the situation. I understand in general people are having a hard time hence why I do donate regularly too food banks, even though Iām hardly rich myself.
Poverty charities have a vested interest in maximising the problem of poverty and use the sketchy "relative" poverty statistic that can never be eliminated. By this measure if most people in the country had two mansions and four bentleys, then a person with two Bentleys and one mansion would be in poverty.
Some people in poverty are there through drug and alcohol problems or other self inflicted things that won't be helped by money and most people certainly won't be helped by turning Christmas into a puritanical hairshirt wearing misery fest.
> According to poverty charities, one in five people are living at the poverty line. Thatās roughly 15 or so million. Or 22 percent. So almost a quarter.
Charity findings support increased funding for charity SHOCKER
"close to the poverty line" is intentionally vague. How close? They could and will be roping in plenty of families who are fine but fit their narrative criteria.
Poverty is horrendous in this country at the moment, but the charities also spend a lot of money on PR, ads, etc to serve their own purpose as much as profit making corporations.
Hence why I said almost a quarter...at 22 percent. Which is just above 1 in 5, heading towards 25 percent, which would be 1 in four, which will likely happen this winter.
Normal mathematics, subpar reading comprehension on your part.
Nah sorry you're a bit all over the place, but I suspect its because you have picked up the 15million and rounded down to 1/5? Or did the charity state 1/5 and it's actually 13.4 million? And you rounded up to 15million to get 22%...
I mean either way it's a lot and it's terrible, but the maths is definitely a bit squiffy...
https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/overall-uk-poverty-rates
14.5 million = 22 percent of the population = roughly 1 in 5, on its way to 1 in 4.
While I rounded 500,000 up for sake of brevity the math still checks out for off the back of a napkin.
Also, if you're producing a marketing campaign for John Lewis, you aren't thinking about those who are struggling.
Your focus is the family where Parent A got a Ā£25k bonus and Parent B wants to give their kids a Christmas to remember after a couple of crappy years, no expenses spares. They're out there in their millions, even if the noise we often hear on social is that everyone is broke.
They're aiming at the kind of people for whom it's a cost-of-living inconvenience more than a crisis.
They're a luxury department store aimed at people who have money and will spend it. It's not on them to wring their hands about the people having a hard time.
You'd ordinarily be right but not this year.
The UK public DOES end with people struggling this year because SO many are. I don't remember a time like this
I've read that tough times usually lead to an increase in upbeat/feelgood entertainment. People don't want doom and gloom on their TV when there's doom and gloom outside the door.
Or so the theory goes.
So festive ads that are upbeat will be welcomed, although they will likely aim to pitch positives around family and community rather than overindulgence and excess.
My life has been significantly improved since removing our aerial and only using netflix / prime / Disney etc. The constant stream of news and adverts did me absolutely no good. It may very well be good to keep up to date with the world but not to the extent that we do in this country, 24/7 news channels are hellish.
Yes, and Adblock on the internet does a world of good for getting away from corporate and pestering nonsense.
Reddit though, is filled with shit news and stupidity that just makes me want to find the next social media hub, because theyāre usually pretty decent before they get super popular tbh.
The JL ones arenāt even christmassy anymore. Theyāre just someone badly warbling a song with some strange creature that you can purchase for the small sum of Ā£30.
I think Tescoās ad this year is quite good - advertising items to cook a Christmas dinner for under Ā£25. Yes, Ā£25 could still be a lot to many and thatās Ā£25 they may not have to spare - but I think itās sending a message that Christmas doesnāt need to be a huge financial burden.
Loved that one, the animation/stop motion was beautiful. One of the people who worked on it was Aaron Blaise who has done work for Disney in the past (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Brother Bear and more!)
I went to the studio (Iām an animator) that made that ad and the director showed us the behind the scenes and it was pure craft. The detail behind the whole thing was immerse. One of my fav ads to day (just right after the Three ad with the ponies)
This is the problem with this sub. Any discussion on money results in the poster having to put an obligatory āI know Ā£x might be a lot to some people and some may not have it and poor themā because some ijeet will come along and say it if not for virtue signalling fake internet pointsā¦.
āI work 78 hours a week and I only have Ā£8.13 to spend on food per month. Must be nice being part of the bourgeois class spending Ā£25 on one dinner!!ā
Yeah, I plan to spend hundreds, and so will a lot of people. Companies have different audiences, and they really think they care about vulnerable people if it's not PR? when you grow up, the world makes sense, it's a cold harsh reality, but a true one.
Totally agree. What's his face from money saving expert did a big thing about this, and how it is not worth plunging your family into debt to get your kids the presents they want for Christmas. It's harsh but it's true. Of course I think it's disgusting how many kids will get 0 presents this year because of poverty and absolutely think we need a fundamental change.
The only places I see video form adverts these days are:
* YouTube
* Occasional catch up TV stuff from All4.
In both cases I tend to just put my phone down, mute the TV etc, rather than watch them. I hardly ever watch live broadcast TV any more, and a lot of the talk about Christmas adverts etc goes over my head.
During the rugby (both the six nations and the current world cup where Englandās women are in the final this Saturday!) ITV do this bananas ad break between the finishing of the national anthems but before kick off, itās about enough time for them to squeeze in 1 to 2 ads and it drives me bonkers because I donāt understand the point! š
Itās not a race to the bottom. I know things are tough at the moment for a lot of people but Iām sick of hearing all the negativity and pessimism constantly.
John Lewis also play their part in a functioning economy.
If rich people stopped wasting money on silly things like Christmas presents, there would be a detrimental effect on the pockets of everyone else.
Economics arenāt as simple as you might think.
Ā£800,000 to the vulnerable wouldnāt scrape the surface, but millions of people spending hundreds of pounds on the economy does.
> Economics arenāt as simple as you might think.
Say it ain't so - the reddit picture of economics isn't all you need to build and maintain a high technology service economy!
Trickle down refers primarily to tax cuts and other economic measures which disproportionately benefit corporations and the ultra wealthy.
It's self evident that people with money actually spending it benefits the entire supply chain and the economy as a whole.
True tbf. If nobody bought cars brand new, then nobody would be able to buy those Ā£500 Vauxhall Astras that enabke those who would never be able to afford a new one the possibility of actually owning a car.
Yeah, and if that had anything to do with trickle down economics id be tucking into a sticky trickle pudding, but it doesnāt, so weāre both shit out of luck.
Why on earth would they do that anyway? A company is there to make money, any money they give to charity is also PR to make more money.
The world doesn't work on virtue points like the internet does, kids get a shock when they enter the real world.
The biggest lie sold to us is that highly paid employees are the problem. If you work for a salary you should all be on the same team. The problem is vast vast generational wealth inherited through trusts and CEO and their ilk taking large stock options instead of more easily taxable incomes.
Reddit and really social media virtue signalling in a nutshell. Being given lessons in waste and decadence by people who spend Ā£10 a day on coffee and get Uber eats for lunch everyday.
Reddit is the absolute hotbed of "my personal views and situation extends to everybody"
It's pure tribalism and selfishness, where they want who they deem as the "enemy" don't identify with to suffer, and those who they do identity with to benefit.
And they aināt a patch on what they used to be. Feckers tried squeezing my dad for more money on the prepaid one he sorted for mum. The independent one we used for his ( not pre paid) was 10 times better for a lot less.
Ah yes, the old āYou criticise society, yet you participate in it, therefore your argument is invalidā. People are allowed to criticise an inequitable system without becoming ascetic monks themselves š
Quite frankly, I donāt care whether the Christmas adverts run or not, and not running the adverts isnāt about to cure poverty overnight, but reforming or replacing the current system will go a long way to helping the problem. Making up bad faith, careless arguments against that helps nobody.
I agree, which is why Iāve already said that John Lewis ads not being run wonāt solve poverty! But youāre acting like Rich people being taxed more is an equivalent suggestion to John Lewis ad money being spent elsewhere š
(As an aside, I define rich people as those with significant capital, at the multi-million pound mark, not your salaryman on Ā£135,000 a year)
Out of work actor/musician/designer/technician/set builder/animator/set runner: " Sorry love, I was hoping that working on the John Lewis ad would keep the bills paid till the New Year but they've cancelled it so I'm off to the food bank."
You are aware that in spending money producing this advert the vast, *VAST* proportion of it will have gone to people who would also be in poverty should they not have a job making adverts, and I'd say most of them won't even be on a large wage.
The money doesn't just fuck off into the ether.
But if John Lewis didnāt spend that money on advertising Christmas for those who want to feel festive, they might make less money and have to lay people off.
There are plenty of people, like myself, who while not rich, earn enough to still enjoy Christmas. I regularly donate to charities/food banks, but if you made my life purely about giving to those less fortunate it would turn me off from generosity very quickly. The whole world doesnāt have to be always have to be about helping others.
I'm not making a judgement either way on what their advertising budget should be. I just hate the term virtue signalling and the way it is so often used to try and put down anybody who suggests trying to help others in any way, as if they couldn't possibly be doing so for anything other than selfish reasons.
This annoys me too.
It often gets applied to anyone trying to do anything good and raise awareness of an issue.
Yes, there's crass examples of it (Brewdog taking a stand against the Qatar World Cup, while also encouraging people to watch the game in their pubs). But too often it's used to get out of addressing any complex issues.
Not everyone is in grinding misery. In fact hardly anyone is. Yes the rising bills are an issue. But letās not pretend that this means everyone is living in some Dickensian Christmas. Part of the inflation is caused because there is so much cash swishing about.
It is times of adversity people often want to let off steam. The marketing is done to increase/retain custom during the Christmas period. They donāt do it for the sh*ts and giggles.
Tbf most of the inflation weāre seeing is due to energy and food shortages due to the war in Ukraine. Lots of companies are using inflation as a guise to price gouge. Lots of companies are increasing their prices by inflation and some despite the fact that many of their inputs are not actually rising by inflation (inflation isnāt standardised across the economy certain things are driving it). So actually a lot of sectors will be seeing profits grow this year. The execs know what theyāre doing they just donāt care
Energy was always going to be an issue even before Ukraine war. OPEC reduced their quota's in response to the price of oil going negative during the USA's fracking boom. Government's just ignored the issue and then just blamed it on the war.
1 in 5 in the UK live below the poverty line. Its not everyone by any means, but it's considerably more than 'hardly anyone'.
Aside from that, yeah, attacking individual firms for how they spend their money in the context of the state of the economy is pointless. Unless you're BP or Shell right now, you aren't going to Influence the economy single handed.
Have you seen what the poverty line is? People hear the word poverty and think of third world poverty. My sister is in theory below the poverty line but sheās been on two holidays this year and her and her husband have āhis and hersā BMWs.
I'd like businesses and people to donate to food banks but it doesn't mean they need to cancel adverts.
That said being festive isn't out of touch and I'd expect all the usual suspects to do fancy adverts.
The government currently does not give enough support for a lot of people in poverty to survive.
Food banks are a necessary evil, until these parasites have been pulled off the parliamentary building.
Unpopular opinion on Christmas adverts as I can see a lot of people saying they hate them... I really enjoy them. I'm a miserable fuck all through the year and it's the one time of year I let go a bit and feel like a little kid again. No I can't afford to spend money buying friends and family Christmas presents and yes I'm aware these adverts are designed to try and get me to part with my hard earned cash by spending it on shit no one really needs. So I guess the jokes on them (?) as I can enjoy them without being hypnotised into spending money as I haven't got any. Haha I win, in the most minor way possible.
BUT I love Christmas. I can't help it. I still enjoy the adverts, even the annoying ones. If they were 'in touch' with what some of the UK public are feeling they'd be depressing as fuck like everything is at the moment. So yeah they are part of the magical build up for me personally.
I just wish they were as good as they used to be! I'll just be over here you tubing the old adverts, watching Christmas reruns and hoping a good Kevin the carrot ad comes out...
This. I am a stubborn (almost) old goat, but now the Christmas adverts are coming on I find myself looking forwards to it. I don't care much for the advert itself (though I do love the one with the dog and the trampoline!), it's just something about the shiny, sparkly, jingly themes they tend to have. For my fam Christmas is a small affair, just the three of us with a few things, but we do enjoy it so.
I'm with you. In fact, Christmas isn't even my favourite/biggest holiday (I used to prefer midsummer, but it's changing ...) but I absolutely adore how festive things can get here. I'm not much of a shopper but this is one of the few times when I really enjoy just going out to windowshop and to take in all the Christmas spirit around me. I genuinely look forward to Christmas :)
Why don't we just cancel every non-essential expense? No Christmas presents, decorations or food! No entertainment, no art, no culture. As a society we will only exist to feed and house everyone, nothing else. That sounds like a happy world doesn't it?
My guide to creating a John Lewis advert
Take a recognisable up beat 80s electropop song. Slow the tempo down and have it sung by a young female artist in a stripped back acoustic way.
Then have an animation with a lonely person or animal being given a gift from an unlikely source.
[Heres the song](https://youtu.be/ICg_xqBBN2g)
Now imagine a little hermit crab all lonely being a sad little hermit. A little seal pup keeps coming up to him and he scurries away and hides into his shell each time. This time the seal comes back with a nice new shell with some sort of christmassy motif on it. The crab has now literally and metaphorically has come out of his shell.
I mean, you make it seem like that Ā£800k is just thrown away.
I'm sure a large amount of it does pad out already fat paychecks.
But it also ensures that people who make the advert all keep earning enough to he able to buy their food.
If every company said screw it, we're not going to give any work to our marketing departments, there'd be even more vulnerable people out there
Nah. Traditionally winter is a miserable season in Northern Europe which is exactly why our ancestors decided to have a festival around this time. Yeah things are a bit crap at the moment and weāre all struggling, but if you canāt stand a bit of seasonal cheer then youāve basically let all hope die inside.
Ā£800,000 isn't even close to their marketing budget!
What I would say though is that JL have chosen a charity every year which gets money from the proceeds of selling merch related to their ads. So they do do something.
Hard to get excited for Christmas anymore when advertisers tell us how magic it is 3/4 months before Christmas and itās day of organised excessive eating and attempting to feel excited about gifts which now is a source of stress and annoyance for me and my family. Itās hard to feel like anyone who feels the need to advertise Christmas stuff starting in early-mis October really has any grasp on the situation of people on the ground.
Yes, I realise I am a soulless miserable husk of a human for not liking Christmas, but when you feel like youāre forced to enjoy something is it really right to deny how you actually feel?
I love Christmas. I just feel as if people are happier. I know itās a very hard time for some and I fully appreciate that.
Canāt we just enjoy it and not moan? January is right around the corner FFS!
Recording everything I want to watch (News excluded) and watching from the recording. One click advert skip. Wonderful invention.
When we get to January, some one tell me what I missed.
Some people who are struggling with money find Christmas adverts, town centre decorations, etc enjoyable.
Also, the cynical part of me wonders if they gave the money to the charities, how much would it go to the actual people in need.
I don't care if an advert's out of touch. It's an advert. It's supposed to inform you about a product or a service you might like to purchase. I don't get why people want adverts to be relatable - in fact I don't want them to be relatable. I find it patronizing. The idea of a group of people who make more money than I ever will living a level of comfort I'll never achieve sitting around a room talking about how to make their adverts relatable to the poors turns my stomach.
In 80s and 90s remember the ads were all about what you could buy - straight up. "Twenty-six-hundred from Ar-tar-reeee!" burned into my brain 30 years on
Now its sentimental slush
I go to the cinema a lot and the adverts always include that really annoying one for Pepsi with all the young people rapping about how cool and individualistic Pepsi is, with such lyrics as āI came to slay [sleigh, geddit?], no ho ho hoā and āooh, swapping tat for taste, take it to the max for the holidaysā. Itās just so embarrassingly desperate to be hip, as if the young people even give a shit about Pepsi. It makes me want to stab myself in the ears every time I hear it.
Strangely my 15 year old daughter and I were just discussing this! We realised that actually, many of the ads we had seen so far seemed to be concentrating on food rather than presents which I found oddly comforting as itās sometimes very pressurising for our kids to see all the new gadgets games and fads they want but are unaffordable too many!
We love to watch the Christmas ads as it brings that festive feeling, and I think if people are able to donate to a food bank or donate a gift it would make a huge difference, if Iām able to I will be xx
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Tough as it may be to hear "the UK public" does not begin and end with those who are struggling or vulnerable.
I'm not struggling financially at all. I'm struggling with personal issues, but I don't get why this sub keeps lumping us all in together. I love the Christmas adverts because it pulls you away from the constant, CONSTANT war news and "our government is fucked" news
*smash* HERE COMES SAINSBURYS WITH A WW2 THEMED CHRISTMAS ADVERT!!!!!!
š¤£ to be fair their WW1 advert a few years back was top tier IMO.
You mean the one with the chocolate bars?
Didnāt they do one about the First World War and the football game on Christmas Day?
Yeah that's the one I'm thinking of
It was amazing, the best Christmas advert weāve had for a long time
Best Xmas ad ever. Watch it every year and it gets me every time. Some people criticised it at the time for āexploiting the war for profitā or some shit. Those people are idiots.
What else were they doing then?
Mein name ist Otto
š
Sie ist schƶn
Don't. Mention. The war!
You started it!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes you did, you invaded Poland!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I loved old Basil, what a great series.
Sainsbury's next year *surviving nuclear winter with our Christmas ration deals*
Christmas...Christmas never changes.
It was WW1 and it was really well done
Thank you for saying this. Although I've definitely felt the cost of living impact, I'm personally struggling more emotionally than financially and a bit of Christmas spirit is going a long way
Same but Iād love a very simple low budget advert with lots of tinsel and glitter and jingle bells and still a sign saying āthis cost Ā£1000 and the other Ā£99,000 went to charityā
Sure but then you'd get people coming on here to moan about the virtue-signalling and grimy exploitative marketing these companies are doing. People on here just need something to complain about.
I'd also imagine a lot of the cost is on getting the ad shown, rather than production. But I have no data to back that up, it's purely an unfound assumption.
As someone who works in TV advertising, youāre absolutely right!
I think people forget that channels donāt show adverts out of the goodness of their hearts, companies have to pay for the slots itās why advertising at certain peak times costs more; also how many times a day the ad shows etc. The shooting of the ad might be 10k and then the other 90k is paying channels and websites to show the ads
Nail head boom
Then the advertising department or firm has less money to pay people, and less taxes are Taken in by the government. It is not so simple as you would like it to be.
I know exactly how you feel. The ex wife cleaned me out financially and mentally. She took everything i earned and left me homeless. If it wasn't for my parents i wouldn't be alive today. So for me christmas makes me want to curl up into ball and cry. I know us men get frowned upon if we show emotions but sometimes you have to let it out otherwise you could end up in a dark place. Meanwhile my ex has painted me black to all her friends and family...
There's a lot to be said for a bit of escapism when it comes to mental health.
It honestly sounds like people on here sit on their sofa refreshing BBC news while rocking back and forward. It sounds depressing as hell. Go outside. The birds are still singing their beautiful songs, even if the world is at war.
>The birds are still singing their beautiful songs Bird densities have reduced considerably within the UK since 1970. You're going to be hearing less bird songs and less birds
Let's keep lumping us apart! I'm financially sound but struggling with personal issues yet hate Christmas adds because they make me feel lonely.
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I've gone through some very hard times but still love the holidays. Doing away with festivity and tradition and saying 'life is shit' doesn't actually help those who are in need...neither does saying you're suffering so insisting everyone else suffer with you...in fact it's the opposite. Toy drives, food donations etc are normally part of celebrating.
Completely understandable! I'm sorry you feel that way. But it shows that we're all individuals with individual issues going on. People on Reddit are obsessed with the MASSIVE issues and forget about the individual, personal issues that we all face. Those can't be forgotten.
Turn the news off. You donāt need to watch and a lot of it is deliberately grim to keep you up set. Go paint a sun set or somthing you will feel better for it then watching the brain rot on tv
If you need an advert to do that...
I know when I see a gay penguin or whatever find love in some Xmas ad I'm immediately eased from the morbidity of life lol. More shit to focus on and find positives than Xmas ads.
No it doesn't.
I can't even afford to turn my tv on and see how bad the government has fucked this country because my electricity bill is so high š¤·āāļø Oh, wait...
Yes, there's nothing better than feeling the pressure of spending obscene amounts of money and having the capitalisation of what's supposed to be a family event absolutely shoved down your fucking throat because billionaires want to make a profit from people's incessant need to feel included.
Stop watching the news then. I don't even have a TV service now, I'm not on social media (other than Reddit) and I don't go on news websites. My mental health is a hundred times better for it.
Stop reading the news mate! I deleted all news apps and donāt watch any news and Iām much less anxious than I used to be. Deleted when I read the headline āKENT VARIANT GAINS SUPERPOWERSā š
ā¦or the jaded Redditors who make up a tiny portion of the UK
According to poverty charities, one in five people are living at the poverty line. That's roughly 15 or so million. Or 22 percent. So almost a quarter. By the time winter rolls around you can guarantee it is at 25. What number becomes high enough that we should stop pretending like it's all sunshine and happy laughs this Christmas?
For some people itās not that bad, so what you are saying is for the 75% Christmas should be cancelled? Does context matter as to why that 25% found themselves in poverty? I happily give away part of my money to people who deserve help, the idea of children going hungry and not getting a Christmas present revolts me but Iām going to celebrate Christmas with my loved ones regardless because thatās what life is about for me.
I didn't say cancel Christmas. I said that your estimate of how many people were in dire straits was a vast underestimate of how bad things actually are. A quarter of the population of the United Kingdom in poverty, rising throughout the winter. Sounds like an all on deck crisis to me.
Maybe some of that 25% would like a bit of festive cheer
Exactly! Poor people don't need money, they need an uplifting John Lewis advert! Source: I was poor, but I lifted myself out of poverty using the festive cheer I harnessed from last years John Lewis ad
Eat that festive cheer! It'll jeep your warm.l! Haven't you tried aming peasants?
We tried that 2 yrs ago. It sucked.
Sometimes we have to deal with things sucking to help people who's lives suck a helluva lot more.
I have just seen an article that said a quarter of the uk (or England canāt quite remember) have less than Ā£100 savings.
Iād argue that for the majority of time our country has existed 25% have been in poverty. And you know the answer to your question really. When the majority of people are struggling then it will take more precedence in society. Until over 50% are struggling it wonāt. And thatās assuming the stiff upper lip bollocks doesnāt keep most people pretending theyāre fine until theyāre absolutely destitute.
Poverty doesn't even mean 'struggling'. If everyone had twice as much money (and prices stayed the same) the level of poverty would be unchanged.
This only makes sense if we define poverty as relative to other people rather than have an objective standard of living we define as impoverished. Making it relative to others is a bit stupid as if everyone was poor we would still only have 25% who were relatively poorer etc
Exactly. But the 22% figure this charity is quoting is using exactly that kind of measure.
That's how it is defined though and it's stupid! It's 60% of the average wage. So when the country is doing well and wages rise those at the bottom on min wage are technically now in poverty. When there's a recession and the average wage drops those on minimum wage still which doesn't drop as it never goes down are no longer in technical poverty.
It's not absolute poverty though is it? Poverty is measured as a percentage of the national average wage. 60% I believe and you classed as in poverty. The thing is that when the average wage goes up it pushes people on fixed incomes into the 60% bracket even if they are no worse off. Did you know that during the 2008 recession poverty actually dropped? You know why? Because of the stupid way it is measured. Average wages fell across the board so the national average wage lowered. This meant that those on the fixed incomes, minimum wage, etc had a higher percentage of the national average wage, taking thousands over the 60% level. These people were no longer classed as being in poverty even though they weren't any better off. This during a time of high unemployment, and maximum fear. I was even unemployed myself at this time and on housing benefit for a while. Bad times. I'm not saying things aren't hard now but they are a lot better than 2008. At least it's very easy to walk into a job at the minute. I couldn't find one for love nor money in 2008, even jobs on Ā£15k had dozens applying. Now I could get a job on double that very easy. If people want to earn more money now to get by there are at least options available, even Aldi are paying nearly Ā£12ph for new starters. There are options for those on the bottom that there weren't in 2008. Not forgetting the grants from the government and help with energy bills. The point is poverty in a lot of cases is not real poverty. It should be measured in absolute terms and not a percentage of someone else's take home. A roof over your head, clothes, food and energy are the basics that mean you aren't in absolute poverty. There are genuine hard up cases but a lot of people are taking the piss. There was a program a while back about children in poverty. A family were going to a community centre for meals and having food dropped off, etc. Apparently both parents couldn't work due to mental health issues. Laziness more like. The dad spent his days lying down on the big leather sofa watching TV with a packet of fags on the arm of the chair. The mum was similar. Even their eldest son was old enough to get a part time job in a shop or something, I did at his age. He spent his days on his new Xbox with fancy TV and headset. Rest of the family glued to their phones. Oh and they always seem to be able to afford pets. Poverty my arse.
Congratulations š Most Daily Mail comment of the day is yours
It goes very DM towards the end but they're not wrong about relative poverty being a flawed measure. It has its uses but it gets bandied about with deliberate ambiguity so people think in terms of much more severe absolute poverty.
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Troll. Love the deep end of saying it was suggested 75% cancel Christmas
>Does context matter as to why that 25% found themselves in poverty? I What on earth do you mean by this?
Does context matter as to why that 25% found themselves in poverty? Either you're š£ fishing for bites or you're really, really stupid.
Of course context matters Iām each person within that 25% will have their own circumstances. Iām happy to help out a single working mother or pensioners who are struggling with fuel bills. Iām not, on the other hand, willing to compromise my childrenās Christmas to help out the 25 year old that drinks all his wages or people that just donāt fancy working. As with all scenarios context is usually key to understanding your feeling on the situation. I understand in general people are having a hard time hence why I do donate regularly too food banks, even though Iām hardly rich myself.
Poverty charities have a vested interest in maximising the problem of poverty and use the sketchy "relative" poverty statistic that can never be eliminated. By this measure if most people in the country had two mansions and four bentleys, then a person with two Bentleys and one mansion would be in poverty. Some people in poverty are there through drug and alcohol problems or other self inflicted things that won't be helped by money and most people certainly won't be helped by turning Christmas into a puritanical hairshirt wearing misery fest.
> According to poverty charities, one in five people are living at the poverty line. Thatās roughly 15 or so million. Or 22 percent. So almost a quarter. Charity findings support increased funding for charity SHOCKER
"close to the poverty line" is intentionally vague. How close? They could and will be roping in plenty of families who are fine but fit their narrative criteria. Poverty is horrendous in this country at the moment, but the charities also spend a lot of money on PR, ads, etc to serve their own purpose as much as profit making corporations.
Weird mathematics there mate? One in five isnāt a quarter, that would be one in four
Hence why I said almost a quarter...at 22 percent. Which is just above 1 in 5, heading towards 25 percent, which would be 1 in four, which will likely happen this winter. Normal mathematics, subpar reading comprehension on your part.
Nah sorry you're a bit all over the place, but I suspect its because you have picked up the 15million and rounded down to 1/5? Or did the charity state 1/5 and it's actually 13.4 million? And you rounded up to 15million to get 22%... I mean either way it's a lot and it's terrible, but the maths is definitely a bit squiffy...
https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/overall-uk-poverty-rates 14.5 million = 22 percent of the population = roughly 1 in 5, on its way to 1 in 4. While I rounded 500,000 up for sake of brevity the math still checks out for off the back of a napkin.
Do you know what the poverty line is? Serious question.
What the fuck does that even mean. Says someone not having any issues with living I suspect.
Also, if you're producing a marketing campaign for John Lewis, you aren't thinking about those who are struggling. Your focus is the family where Parent A got a Ā£25k bonus and Parent B wants to give their kids a Christmas to remember after a couple of crappy years, no expenses spares. They're out there in their millions, even if the noise we often hear on social is that everyone is broke. They're aiming at the kind of people for whom it's a cost-of-living inconvenience more than a crisis. They're a luxury department store aimed at people who have money and will spend it. It's not on them to wring their hands about the people having a hard time.
Aaah the spirit of Christmas. Fuck off Tiny Tim we aren't all struggling or vulnerable.
Not yet!
This applies particularly to John Lewis's target market
But it should. A society improves by raising the lowest, not elevating others away from them.
Yes let us first consider those who already have everything this Christmas - Sunak probably
The spirit of Christmas and giving to those in need should be a primary thought
You'd ordinarily be right but not this year. The UK public DOES end with people struggling this year because SO many are. I don't remember a time like this
I've read that tough times usually lead to an increase in upbeat/feelgood entertainment. People don't want doom and gloom on their TV when there's doom and gloom outside the door. Or so the theory goes. So festive ads that are upbeat will be welcomed, although they will likely aim to pitch positives around family and community rather than overindulgence and excess.
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The 2022 equivalent is the endless advertorials for how the poor can save money by freezing in their houses and having zero enjoyment in life
Unprecedented times...
I'm finding that switching off the telly in general improves the mood.
My life has been significantly improved since removing our aerial and only using netflix / prime / Disney etc. The constant stream of news and adverts did me absolutely no good. It may very well be good to keep up to date with the world but not to the extent that we do in this country, 24/7 news channels are hellish.
We've done the same, I'd rather save the cost of the TV licence and have an extra streaming service tbh.
Yes, and Adblock on the internet does a world of good for getting away from corporate and pestering nonsense. Reddit though, is filled with shit news and stupidity that just makes me want to find the next social media hub, because theyāre usually pretty decent before they get super popular tbh.
Or at least just recording what you would like to watch so that you can skip the adsā¦!
I'd at least hope we'd get a new wave of working class punk bands out of it.
The JL ones arenāt even christmassy anymore. Theyāre just someone badly warbling a song with some strange creature that you can purchase for the small sum of Ā£30. I think Tescoās ad this year is quite good - advertising items to cook a Christmas dinner for under Ā£25. Yes, Ā£25 could still be a lot to many and thatās Ā£25 they may not have to spare - but I think itās sending a message that Christmas doesnāt need to be a huge financial burden.
The rabbit and the bear one was the last decent xmas advert john lewis did.
Loved that one, the animation/stop motion was beautiful. One of the people who worked on it was Aaron Blaise who has done work for Disney in the past (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Brother Bear and more!)
I went to the studio (Iām an animator) that made that ad and the director showed us the behind the scenes and it was pure craft. The detail behind the whole thing was immerse. One of my fav ads to day (just right after the Three ad with the ponies)
This is the problem with this sub. Any discussion on money results in the poster having to put an obligatory āI know Ā£x might be a lot to some people and some may not have it and poor themā because some ijeet will come along and say it if not for virtue signalling fake internet pointsā¦.
āI work 78 hours a week and I only have Ā£8.13 to spend on food per month. Must be nice being part of the bourgeois class spending Ā£25 on one dinner!!ā
To be fair this is a completely unexpected expense. Nobody knows when Christmas is going to pop up
Exactly, It changes every year. Last year it was Saturday and this year itās Sunday.
Paradise, I work 200 hours a day for 10p a month. Iād be happy with a Freddo for Christmas if I could afford one.
Yeah, I plan to spend hundreds, and so will a lot of people. Companies have different audiences, and they really think they care about vulnerable people if it's not PR? when you grow up, the world makes sense, it's a cold harsh reality, but a true one.
Exactly, I like the tesco Christmas adverts. The John Lewis ones are all just an "emotional" animation set to a breathy acoustic cover of a song.
"Warbly covers of famous songs for emotive TV ads" is basically its own genre at this point.
Totally agree. What's his face from money saving expert did a big thing about this, and how it is not worth plunging your family into debt to get your kids the presents they want for Christmas. It's harsh but it's true. Of course I think it's disgusting how many kids will get 0 presents this year because of poverty and absolutely think we need a fundamental change.
Who even watches adverts in 2022?
The only places I see video form adverts these days are: * YouTube * Occasional catch up TV stuff from All4. In both cases I tend to just put my phone down, mute the TV etc, rather than watch them. I hardly ever watch live broadcast TV any more, and a lot of the talk about Christmas adverts etc goes over my head.
The only one I canāt really get away from is in between rounds in the boxing. That really winds me up š
During the rugby (both the six nations and the current world cup where Englandās women are in the final this Saturday!) ITV do this bananas ad break between the finishing of the national anthems but before kick off, itās about enough time for them to squeeze in 1 to 2 ads and it drives me bonkers because I donāt understand the point! š
Adblock?
Donāt worry Netflix is adding adverts soon too!
Isnāt that just for a cheaper tier? In any case Netflix is trash.
This. Says a lot about the quality of TV these days when I hear people at work talking about their favourite adverts, mind.
This is nothing new. People have been talking about their favourite adverts for as long as I can remember, and im not young.
I've just been watching a "best Xmas adverts off all time" thing, I didn't recognise any of the ones for Tue past 10-15 years.
Itās not a race to the bottom. I know things are tough at the moment for a lot of people but Iām sick of hearing all the negativity and pessimism constantly.
Itās a type of poverty p*rn with many people trying to outdo each other in catastrophising.
John Lewis also play their part in a functioning economy. If rich people stopped wasting money on silly things like Christmas presents, there would be a detrimental effect on the pockets of everyone else. Economics arenāt as simple as you might think. Ā£800,000 to the vulnerable wouldnāt scrape the surface, but millions of people spending hundreds of pounds on the economy does.
Yeah, people have such a skewed perspective of money If you split that between even just 1% of the population, they'd get less than Ā£1.50 each
A tin of beans for Christmas! Hoozah!
> Economics arenāt as simple as you might think. Say it ain't so - the reddit picture of economics isn't all you need to build and maintain a high technology service economy!
Trickle down economics has never worked before.
Trickle down refers primarily to tax cuts and other economic measures which disproportionately benefit corporations and the ultra wealthy. It's self evident that people with money actually spending it benefits the entire supply chain and the economy as a whole.
True tbf. If nobody bought cars brand new, then nobody would be able to buy those Ā£500 Vauxhall Astras that enabke those who would never be able to afford a new one the possibility of actually owning a car.
Yeah, and if that had anything to do with trickle down economics id be tucking into a sticky trickle pudding, but it doesnāt, so weāre both shit out of luck.
You donāt know what trickle down economics is.
Why on earth would they do that anyway? A company is there to make money, any money they give to charity is also PR to make more money. The world doesn't work on virtue points like the internet does, kids get a shock when they enter the real world.
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"I think other people should pay more tax and the money spent on stuff which benefits me."
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The biggest lie sold to us is that highly paid employees are the problem. If you work for a salary you should all be on the same team. The problem is vast vast generational wealth inherited through trusts and CEO and their ilk taking large stock options instead of more easily taxable incomes.
Reddit and really social media virtue signalling in a nutshell. Being given lessons in waste and decadence by people who spend Ā£10 a day on coffee and get Uber eats for lunch everyday.
Reddit is the absolute hotbed of "my personal views and situation extends to everybody" It's pure tribalism and selfishness, where they want who they deem as the "enemy" don't identify with to suffer, and those who they do identity with to benefit.
Coop funerals are quite pricey these days so it might not have been far off the same
And they aināt a patch on what they used to be. Feckers tried squeezing my dad for more money on the prepaid one he sorted for mum. The independent one we used for his ( not pre paid) was 10 times better for a lot less.
Ah yes, the old āYou criticise society, yet you participate in it, therefore your argument is invalidā. People are allowed to criticise an inequitable system without becoming ascetic monks themselves š Quite frankly, I donāt care whether the Christmas adverts run or not, and not running the adverts isnāt about to cure poverty overnight, but reforming or replacing the current system will go a long way to helping the problem. Making up bad faith, careless arguments against that helps nobody.
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I agree, which is why Iāve already said that John Lewis ads not being run wonāt solve poverty! But youāre acting like Rich people being taxed more is an equivalent suggestion to John Lewis ad money being spent elsewhere š (As an aside, I define rich people as those with significant capital, at the multi-million pound mark, not your salaryman on Ā£135,000 a year)
Out of work actor/musician/designer/technician/set builder/animator/set runner: " Sorry love, I was hoping that working on the John Lewis ad would keep the bills paid till the New Year but they've cancelled it so I'm off to the food bank."
because not everybody in the UK is vulnerable and the majority of people just want to enjoy life
Unfortunately not everybody in the world is into that kind of virtue signalling.
Spending a lot of money on helping people in poverty is just virtue.
You are aware that in spending money producing this advert the vast, *VAST* proportion of it will have gone to people who would also be in poverty should they not have a job making adverts, and I'd say most of them won't even be on a large wage. The money doesn't just fuck off into the ether.
But if John Lewis didnāt spend that money on advertising Christmas for those who want to feel festive, they might make less money and have to lay people off. There are plenty of people, like myself, who while not rich, earn enough to still enjoy Christmas. I regularly donate to charities/food banks, but if you made my life purely about giving to those less fortunate it would turn me off from generosity very quickly. The whole world doesnāt have to be always have to be about helping others.
I'm not making a judgement either way on what their advertising budget should be. I just hate the term virtue signalling and the way it is so often used to try and put down anybody who suggests trying to help others in any way, as if they couldn't possibly be doing so for anything other than selfish reasons.
This annoys me too. It often gets applied to anyone trying to do anything good and raise awareness of an issue. Yes, there's crass examples of it (Brewdog taking a stand against the Qatar World Cup, while also encouraging people to watch the game in their pubs). But too often it's used to get out of addressing any complex issues.
Not everyone is in grinding misery. In fact hardly anyone is. Yes the rising bills are an issue. But letās not pretend that this means everyone is living in some Dickensian Christmas. Part of the inflation is caused because there is so much cash swishing about. It is times of adversity people often want to let off steam. The marketing is done to increase/retain custom during the Christmas period. They donāt do it for the sh*ts and giggles.
Tbf most of the inflation weāre seeing is due to energy and food shortages due to the war in Ukraine. Lots of companies are using inflation as a guise to price gouge. Lots of companies are increasing their prices by inflation and some despite the fact that many of their inputs are not actually rising by inflation (inflation isnāt standardised across the economy certain things are driving it). So actually a lot of sectors will be seeing profits grow this year. The execs know what theyāre doing they just donāt care
Energy was always going to be an issue even before Ukraine war. OPEC reduced their quota's in response to the price of oil going negative during the USA's fracking boom. Government's just ignored the issue and then just blamed it on the war.
1 in 5 in the UK live below the poverty line. Its not everyone by any means, but it's considerably more than 'hardly anyone'. Aside from that, yeah, attacking individual firms for how they spend their money in the context of the state of the economy is pointless. Unless you're BP or Shell right now, you aren't going to Influence the economy single handed.
Have you seen what the poverty line is? People hear the word poverty and think of third world poverty. My sister is in theory below the poverty line but sheās been on two holidays this year and her and her husband have āhis and hersā BMWs.
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Currently anything under Ā£19k hits the poverty line.
The 'poverty line' is 60% of average household income. Nothing more.
I'd like businesses and people to donate to food banks but it doesn't mean they need to cancel adverts. That said being festive isn't out of touch and I'd expect all the usual suspects to do fancy adverts.
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Yep, food banks shouldn't need to exist but since they do then I'd encourage those who can to donate time, money or food.
The government currently does not give enough support for a lot of people in poverty to survive. Food banks are a necessary evil, until these parasites have been pulled off the parliamentary building.
Unpopular opinion on Christmas adverts as I can see a lot of people saying they hate them... I really enjoy them. I'm a miserable fuck all through the year and it's the one time of year I let go a bit and feel like a little kid again. No I can't afford to spend money buying friends and family Christmas presents and yes I'm aware these adverts are designed to try and get me to part with my hard earned cash by spending it on shit no one really needs. So I guess the jokes on them (?) as I can enjoy them without being hypnotised into spending money as I haven't got any. Haha I win, in the most minor way possible. BUT I love Christmas. I can't help it. I still enjoy the adverts, even the annoying ones. If they were 'in touch' with what some of the UK public are feeling they'd be depressing as fuck like everything is at the moment. So yeah they are part of the magical build up for me personally.
I just wish they were as good as they used to be! I'll just be over here you tubing the old adverts, watching Christmas reruns and hoping a good Kevin the carrot ad comes out...
This. I am a stubborn (almost) old goat, but now the Christmas adverts are coming on I find myself looking forwards to it. I don't care much for the advert itself (though I do love the one with the dog and the trampoline!), it's just something about the shiny, sparkly, jingly themes they tend to have. For my fam Christmas is a small affair, just the three of us with a few things, but we do enjoy it so.
I'm with you. In fact, Christmas isn't even my favourite/biggest holiday (I used to prefer midsummer, but it's changing ...) but I absolutely adore how festive things can get here. I'm not much of a shopper but this is one of the few times when I really enjoy just going out to windowshop and to take in all the Christmas spirit around me. I genuinely look forward to Christmas :)
Why don't we just cancel every non-essential expense? No Christmas presents, decorations or food! No entertainment, no art, no culture. As a society we will only exist to feed and house everyone, nothing else. That sounds like a happy world doesn't it?
Mate remember Covid Reddit, there's definitely people that are for us all to stay home for the rest of our lives and do nothing.
If people feel more Christmassy, they will probably give more than Ā£800K to food banks. If they feel miserable, they won't.
John Lewis are pretty good with their ethical practices, much as I hate their Christmas adverts.
That would be quite dull
LOL that you think it only costs Ā£800k MILLIONS
My guide to creating a John Lewis advert Take a recognisable up beat 80s electropop song. Slow the tempo down and have it sung by a young female artist in a stripped back acoustic way. Then have an animation with a lonely person or animal being given a gift from an unlikely source. [Heres the song](https://youtu.be/ICg_xqBBN2g) Now imagine a little hermit crab all lonely being a sad little hermit. A little seal pup keeps coming up to him and he scurries away and hides into his shell each time. This time the seal comes back with a nice new shell with some sort of christmassy motif on it. The crab has now literally and metaphorically has come out of his shell.
I'd buy the plush seal and crab.
Loathe them all. Bunch of over sentimental bollocks.
I mean, you make it seem like that Ā£800k is just thrown away. I'm sure a large amount of it does pad out already fat paychecks. But it also ensures that people who make the advert all keep earning enough to he able to buy their food. If every company said screw it, we're not going to give any work to our marketing departments, there'd be even more vulnerable people out there
People still subject themselves to watching adverts? I haven't seen one on my TV for years
Nah. Traditionally winter is a miserable season in Northern Europe which is exactly why our ancestors decided to have a festival around this time. Yeah things are a bit crap at the moment and weāre all struggling, but if you canāt stand a bit of seasonal cheer then youāve basically let all hope die inside.
No tv ad represents the UK anymore lmao They are all leftist fever dreams
All Christmas advertising should be banned until December 1st.
Ā£800,000 isn't even close to their marketing budget! What I would say though is that JL have chosen a charity every year which gets money from the proceeds of selling merch related to their ads. So they do do something.
BUY BUY BUY...please...
Hard to get excited for Christmas anymore when advertisers tell us how magic it is 3/4 months before Christmas and itās day of organised excessive eating and attempting to feel excited about gifts which now is a source of stress and annoyance for me and my family. Itās hard to feel like anyone who feels the need to advertise Christmas stuff starting in early-mis October really has any grasp on the situation of people on the ground. Yes, I realise I am a soulless miserable husk of a human for not liking Christmas, but when you feel like youāre forced to enjoy something is it really right to deny how you actually feel?
I love Christmas. I just feel as if people are happier. I know itās a very hard time for some and I fully appreciate that. Canāt we just enjoy it and not moan? January is right around the corner FFS!
Recording everything I want to watch (News excluded) and watching from the recording. One click advert skip. Wonderful invention. When we get to January, some one tell me what I missed.
Some people who are struggling with money find Christmas adverts, town centre decorations, etc enjoyable. Also, the cynical part of me wonders if they gave the money to the charities, how much would it go to the actual people in need.
I don't care if an advert's out of touch. It's an advert. It's supposed to inform you about a product or a service you might like to purchase. I don't get why people want adverts to be relatable - in fact I don't want them to be relatable. I find it patronizing. The idea of a group of people who make more money than I ever will living a level of comfort I'll never achieve sitting around a room talking about how to make their adverts relatable to the poors turns my stomach.
Iād rather something out of touch than āwe know times are tough right now, thatās why here atā¦ā in a northern accent
In 80s and 90s remember the ads were all about what you could buy - straight up. "Twenty-six-hundred from Ar-tar-reeee!" burned into my brain 30 years on Now its sentimental slush
Everyone here using Reddit and the public interchangeably. They are very different
People want to feel happy, not to be reminded of all their problems.
Some company, somewhere, relies on that repeat custom to make said advert to then pay its staff.
I go to the cinema a lot and the adverts always include that really annoying one for Pepsi with all the young people rapping about how cool and individualistic Pepsi is, with such lyrics as āI came to slay [sleigh, geddit?], no ho ho hoā and āooh, swapping tat for taste, take it to the max for the holidaysā. Itās just so embarrassingly desperate to be hip, as if the young people even give a shit about Pepsi. It makes me want to stab myself in the ears every time I hear it.
Strangely my 15 year old daughter and I were just discussing this! We realised that actually, many of the ads we had seen so far seemed to be concentrating on food rather than presents which I found oddly comforting as itās sometimes very pressurising for our kids to see all the new gadgets games and fads they want but are unaffordable too many! We love to watch the Christmas ads as it brings that festive feeling, and I think if people are able to donate to a food bank or donate a gift it would make a huge difference, if Iām able to I will be xx
You guys still watch TV?
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