The Boots Christmas ad is the worst thing ever, according to internet conspiracy theorists. Yes, the ire of X’s most hate-filled keyboard warriors has been caused by Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh playing Mrs Claus, who has to fill in and save Christmas while her straight white male husband dozes in his chair.
But it’s not just the depiction of a black woman doing good things that has upset them, it’s the reference to gifts for a non-binary person, and trans people cast in the role of the elves. Wokeness gone mad! And lo, many on X are calling for a boycott of Boots, with many of the blokes saying, hilariously, that they’ll only shop at Superdrug from now on.
This is what Christmas is all about isn’t it? Picking apart an advert for anything remotely progressive and stirring up some rage.
Of course, TV ads have long been a battleground for a societal values, but some – as opposed to the Boots one – genuinely have hit very wrong notes…
Kendell Jenner’s protest Pepsi ad
An instant classic of Getting Things Wrong, this annoyed everyone when it came out in 2017. This one ‘dealt with’ a period of activism by having Jenner – one of those class warriors, the Kardashians – pop out of a modelling job to join a protest march outside the studio (who are very grateful she’s there) and then hand a cop in a barricade a Pepsi…cue everyone jumping around in harmony, because protests are just, like, people not getting along. “Live Bolder”, the ad declared. Pepsi pulled it after a few days of mass ridicule.
The lazy housewife-saving Peloton ad
You do wonder how some of these get through tiers of marketing teams and executives. The 2019 Christmas ad showed a housewife receiving a Peloton from her husband for Christmas. She takes the hint, and exercises like a maniac in gratitude, taking scared-looking selfies, ignoring her daughter doing her homework, but getting her lazy butt into shape, that’s for damn sure. “The Gift That Gives Back”, said the slogan. “The Gift That Demeans and Degrades”, said everyone else.
Tesco’s vaccinated Santa ad
Lots of anti-vaxxers didn’t like this one, a pretty mild post-lockdown ad about people coming together again, which had one moment where Santa shows a Covid vaccine passport at an airport. The large amount of complaints revolved around the suggestion that you could be discriminated against if you didn’t have the vaccine. It wasn’t banned, because, well, it was fair enough at the time. And still is now.
You’ve been Tango’d (and banned)
Probably THE most classic banned ad. The original ‘Orange Man’ ad from 1992 was taken from screens for inciting violence. In case you’re unfamiliar, a semi naked man painted orange approaches a young man taking a sip of Tango, then delivering an almighty slap on both cheeks. Cue whole school playtimes taken up with ‘Tango-ing’ your mates, creating one or two tears and a lot of parental concern.
The Rang-tan Iceland advert
Another Christmas advert, this one from 2018 and featuring the Christmassy story of the destruction of the rainforests and why Iceland are removing palm oil from its products. The ad never made it to screen because it was deemed a political message by watchdogs. “Dedicated to the 25 orangutans we lose every day” it declared. Better message than just “Vol-au-vents are 2-for-1.”
The Pot Noodle Horn
Following on from their banned “slag of all snacks” campaign, back in 2005 Pot Noodle made it two for two with the “Have you got the Pot Noodle horn” campaign. In one ad, a man goes into a restaurant with a giant bulge in his trousers. His friends accuse him of having “the Pot Noodle horn”; he denies it but knocks a woman off her chair with what turns out to be an actual horn in his pocket. He leaves, but comes back later eating a Pot Noodle – now sated, his trousers no longer show the horn. Ah, such sweet innocent times.
Men lose the baby for Philadelphia
In this ad from 2019, dads were depicted as such halfwits that they get distracted by eating Philadelphia cheese at the expense of the welfare of their children. It was banned on grounds of stereotyping men as being too self-centred to be adequate parents. Of course, both sexes can be too self-centred to be adequate parents.
