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Really weird John Lewis TV advert

Joe Hutch

Joe Hutch

Mate of the bloke
I rarely watch commercial TV, and when I do I usually skim through the adverts, but the other evening an advert came on, featuring a young boy (maybe five or six years old), with loads of makeup and a woman's dress on. He proceeded to cause havoc in the house, knocking stuff over, breaking things and basically being a pest. His mother ignored him, even when he knocked over his sister's paints.

We were wondering what this advert could be for, when it finally transpired that it was for John Lewis's home insurance.

But we were still baffled by the message the advert was trying to convey. It's OK to let your child trash the house, because the insurance company will pay? (Would they, if it turned out you'd been negligent?) You shouldn't stop him trashing the house, because he's just 'expressing himself'?

(All the time the advert was running, and it's a long old advert, I had the lines from the HMHB song 'Surging out of Convalescence' in my head: 'Is your child hyperactive, or is he perhaps a twat?')
 
The official line from John Lewis is:

“It feels good to have home insurance that keeps up with your life, including optional add-ons to protect the things you love, so you can live in the moment. Fairly-priced and built with care, our cover looks after the accidental and the unexpected. So, you’re free to sit back, relax and let life happen.”

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/1...d-shows-kid-s-destructive-trail-through-house

ISTM it's a ham-fisted attempt by creatives to meet a John Lewis brief to allow them to give the impression they are 'moderne' and 'in touch' with issues of gender and identity by warming over a 2015 advert.

 
Imagine filling out the claim form.

Q 'How did the damage occur?'

A 'Our son was swanning about the place knocking stuff over and we just let him do it because obvs he was just challenging the concept of toxic masculinity'
 
Joe Hutch said:
Imagine filling out the claim form.

Q 'How did the damage occur?'

A 'Our son was swanning about the place knocking stuff over and we just let him do it because obvs he was just challenging the concept of toxic masculinity'
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Or wondering why ones insurance premium seems overly high only to realise it’s because the neighbours children are feral/twats.
 
question is, would I get a discount if I ticked the "I have no children box" from the choices available

  1. I have no children
  2. I have children - how many?
For each child tick the most appropriate box
  1. I have a well behaved child
  2. I have a badly behaved child
  3. My child is feral
  4. My child has a starring role in the Exorcist
 
Bob McC said:
It’s an extremely effective advertising campaign if it’s got members of a hifi forum hot under the collar and posting opinions about it.
Well done John Lewis.
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I think you’ll find a) most of us are taking the piss, and b) haven’t even clicked the link let alone considered switching!
 
Joe Hutch said:
I rarely watch commercial TV, and when I do I usually skim through the adverts, but the other evening an advert came on, featuring a young boy (maybe five or six years old), with loads of makeup and a woman's dress on. He proceeded to cause havoc in the house, knocking stuff over, breaking things and basically being a pest. His mother ignored him, even when he knocked over his sister's paints.

We were wondering what this advert could be for, when it finally transpired that it was for John Lewis's home insurance.

But we were still baffled by the message the advert was trying to convey. It's OK to let your child trash the house, because the insurance company will pay? (Would they, if it turned out you'd been negligent?) You shouldn't stop him trashing the house, because he's just 'expressing himself'?

(All the time the advert was running, and it's a long old advert, I had the lines from the HMHB song 'Surging out of Convalescence' in my head: 'Is your child hyperactive, or is he perhaps a twat?')
Click to expand...
His dad is the one periodically on eBay selling another pair of speakers with “the tweeter ‘dust caps’ have been pushed in by curious little fingers but it doesn’t affect the sound”. The large gores in the cabinet work are from when he shoved them over onto the coffee table again in order to get his parents’ attention.
 
TheDecameron said:
His dad is the one periodically on eBay selling another pair of speakers with “the tweeter ‘dust caps’ have been pushed in by curious little fingers but it doesn’t affect the sound”. The large gores in the cabinet work are from when he shoved them over onto the coffee table again in order to get his parents’ attention.
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I went to buy some Linn Kabers once and when I arrived there after a two hour drive every drive unit had "finger" damage. I got a refund!
 
The advert brought back a memory of an extended family lunch that I hosted at home twenty odd years ago. I came back into the dining room to see my niece who was the age of the kid in the advert, alone after everyone had left the room, about to pour a jug of cream down the curtain.
 
I watched this in disbelief and thought it disgusting and irresponsible. My 5 year old Grandson is already a mini wrecking crew and God forbid he see's this and thinks it's the norm. Mind you the crap coming out of Holyrood, it appears being normal is not the norm, who knows?
 
Joe Hutch said:
I was baffled/bemused rather than hot under the collar.
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This got a lot of traction on Twitter when it came out (which is when I noticed it). Rumblings of the culture war/woke and all that stuff.

If you were bemused then may I put it to you that you are not hip/open-minded/woke/daft/pretentious* enough to shop at John Lewis in 2021? I fear John Lewis don't want you.

The advert is, no doubt, the work of advertising agency idiots and all the John Lewis idiots loved it.

* Delete as appropriate.
 
I bought a washing machine off them a few months back. Maybe I should return it on the grounds that their advert was a load of toss.
 
notaclue said:
The advert is, no doubt, the work of advertising agency idiots...
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Well, they needed something to do when not playing ping-pong and lounging around on beanbags sipping lattés made with oat milk.

I bet somewhere in their office there was a chair shaped like a hand.
 
Si74 said:
I watched this in disbelief and thought it disgusting and irresponsible. My 5 year old Grandson is already a mini wrecking crew and God forbid he see's this and thinks it's the norm. Mind you the crap coming out of Holyrood, it appears being normal is not the norm, who knows?
Click to expand...

Pah! You just aint woke like Bob MC.
 
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