Will You Be Shopping At Boots This Christmas ?

[Khandro]

Hope this link works, and I'm wondering if, 'go woke go broke' might not kick in.

https://archive.ph/S7Tab

[newmodarmy]

Government data published 2020 on  "Ethnicity within marriage or cohabiting mixed-sex relationship, UK, 2018"

White  13,196,882

White and Asian  206,416

White and Black  108,795

White and Mixed/other  268,310

Asian   805,105

Asian and Black  7,655

Asian and Mixed/other 29,684

Black 213,326

Black and Mixed/other  15,995

Mixed/other   162,977

TOTAL in marriage/cohabiting relationship  15,015,145

[barry1010]

1994 https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12694280.row-over-whiteness-of-milky-bar-kid/

2016 https://newstoad.net/2016/10/29/daily-mail-readers-anger-at-plans-for-black-milky-bar-kid/

 

[DDIL]

Walk through any large town and city and you will see 'mixed race' families.

Not every advert has them on and if you don't like it turn the tv off.

[newmodarmy]

DDIL- these figures are for households. Source is:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/adhocs/12186ethnicitywithinmarriageorcohabitingmixedsexrelationshipuk2018

The trend may have changed since 2018 but not such that mixed race are now 'the norm'.

It's good that ads reflect diversity- but that's not what's happening. They're often showing something that isn't typical, and there must be an agenda.

[Cloverjo]

From the link: "No brand is too big to fail. Companies that grow lazy or arrogant risk peril, no matter how established they might be – just look at Atari, Pan Am, Kodak, Nokia, and Blockbuster."

I don't know why the writer of the piece mentioned these companies. They are defunct or lesser than they used to be for other reasons. Nothing to do with 'wokery' or virtue-signalling. 

[rowanwitch]

I liked it at least it had humour....

As a side I believe adverts should reflect the population they are aimed at... Mixed race families are not uncommon but in the UK they are a long way from being "the norm". However it seems they are being normalised by the media.

 

ONS survey last done 2018 will not have changed much

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/adhocs/12186ethnicitywithinmarriageorcohabitingmixedsexrelationshipuk2018

 

[Deskdiary]

I have no issue with there being mixed-raced families in adverts for the very simple reason the companies selling their wares and services want to appeal to everybody - makes perfect sense to me.

 

"Mixed race families are the norm and therefore should be shown on tv." That is just simply not true - they are not the norm, they are the exception.

 

What does make me wryly smile are TV dramas, typically police dramas, where the senior officer always seems to be female or black or gay or a mixture of all three. At some point there's going to be a wheelchair-bound black one-legged transgender pygmy just to tick as many boxes as possible.

 

I was sent an amusing meme the other day which had the BBC logo and written in BBC font it said something along the lines of "The main charachter in this programme is a white middle-aged hetersexual male which some viewers may find offensive".

[davebro3]

I was shocked - there was a tv ad the other day and the family in it were all black!🤣

[douglas9401]

That was the New Zealand rugby team, dave.

[newmodarmy]

//I have no issue with there being mixed-raced families in adverts for the very simple reason the companies selling their wares and services want to appeal to everybody - makes perfect sense to me.//

That's a good point DD. Makes much more sense than claiming "they are the norm" which is clearly ridiculous. 

[Khandro]

I can't shop at Boots for geographical reasons, but if I were in England pre-Christmas I would avoid shopping there, - they retail nothing that can't be bought elsewhere in the high street 

The reason I would avoid them is because I'm sick & tired of being patronised by half-wits who think I'm in need of educating.

I've nothing against black people & homosexuals; they can't help being as they are, I know & have no problem with that, but I don't want, or need to be insulted by being told all the time how I must accept that by the self-righteous.

I also know what what Christmas is about, & gay-pride & wokery isn't part of it.    

[New Judge]

"Mixed race families are the norm"

As already mentioned, oOf course they're not.

One dictionary definition gives it as “usual, typical, standard or most prevalent” which seems reasonable.

You don’t see many mixed race couples. Even in London they are unusual (i.e. the overwhelming majority of couples you see are not mixed race). So I would say to see a mixed race couple is unusual.

They are certainly not typical, standard or most prevalent. The ONS figures for mixed race couples where one party is white (which is the usual portrayal in adverts) is less than 4%. agreed, those figures are from 2018, but I doubt the percentage has increased enough since then to make such couples “typical, standard or most prevalent.”

If you mean that mixed couples are "normal" (as opposed to abnormal) that is entirely different. There's nothing abnormal about them. It's just that they are uncommon.

So the Boots’ advert portrays a situation which is not often encountered and can by no means be said to be common or prevalent. So why do they do this? Possibly for the same reason that the NHS spends an inordinate amount of its (what it claims are) scarce resources devising policies and procedures to cater for the less than 1% of the population who claim to be transgender.

For the NHS it is to proudly announce that, although you may be just a tiny minority, we will adjust our procedures and provide facilities for you, often at the expense of the overwhelming majority, so that you don’t feel any different to that majority (even though you clearly are).

For Boots I’m not really sure why they have devised their advert the way they have. All it’s done is to make some people ask why they have done it. But of course if it gets them another gold star from Stonewall then I suppose that's considered a bonus.

But I hope it’s a success. I want Boots to survive because by the time the government has finished destroying the independent pharmacies (which provide a considerably better service) the likes of Boots will be the only place where many drugs and medicines will be available.

[naomi24]

//they retail nothing that can't be bought elsewhere in the high street //

 

I don't think that's true.   Now Debenhams has gone, short of going to the big cities, I can't think of a shop that sells good perfume and make-up.   Boots has its uses.

[pastafreak]

Well, I've seen the ad twice so far. I hardly noticed colours or genders. I just thought it was a ridiculously chaotic advert and not particularly attractive. 

I hardly shop in Boots anymore...it's noisey, and expensive. I'll buy my make-up and toiletries etc online. The Christmas ad will not influence my shopping habits.

[pastafreak]

Oh...and regarding mixed race couples/families. I have several of each in my immediate family. So they are perfectly normal in my world.

[Untitled]

"I've nothing against black people & homosexuals; they can't help being as they are, I know & have no problem with that, but I don't want, or need to be insulted by being told all the time how I must accept that by the self-righteous."

what a strange thing to say. why would you object to being told you should accept black people?