UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, in partnership with The Royal British Legion, has released a new holiday commercial for its store recreating that glorious Christmas morning a hundred years ago, when British and German soldiers on the front lines of World War I spontaneously put down their weapons, sang Christmas carols, and played soccer together. True story.
So, what’s the problem?
Via The Daily What:
The commercial is very moving, and visually stunning – as far as advertisements go – but the concept has people complaining that it’s inappropriate to use the war to promote a supermarket.
“A story such as this has no place in an ad which, at its core, is urging you to buy your turkey and trimmings at Sainsbury’s,” writes Ellen Stewart for Metro.
Ally Fogg at the Guardian is calling it “a dangerous and disrespectful masterpiece.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received over 200 complaints, and Neil Kelley, an advertising expert at Leeds Beckett University, told the Mirror that it made him feel “unclean.”
What a load of twaddle. It’s a gorgeous commercial, reminding us of a gorgeous moment in history. The Brits sure do holiday commercials better than we do, don’t they?
Also, and I’m just throwing this out there, not disrespecting the commercial or anything, but, um, guys: It was the Germans – not the British – who came out with lit Christmas trees, who started walking into “no-man’s land” first, and invited the other side to come meet them and offered them gifts. Bit of historical revisionism on the part of the British supermarket chain, isn’t it? But then history belongs to the winners, sooooo…….
Just for good measure, here’s an old Paul McCartney video “Pipes of Peace” based on the same incident. And a link to a great book about it, Silent Night: The Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce.
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