My Response to Ally Fogg’s ‘Sainsbury’s Christmas Ad is a dangerous and disrespectful masterpiece’

 This is rather an unusual most for me. I had planned on writing about my Trip to USA next year, but after seeing an article on facebook, I felt a sudden need to respond. So bare with me. More and more in this world and especially in the UK, I find that we are becoming too cautious of offending people, thus resulting in tip toeing around and having all these false opinions. Gradually we are becoming clones of one another, losing any individuality that we once had.

The Ally Fogg Article 

After watching the Sainsbury’s Christmas Advert earlier today, I had hands down decided that It was the best one yet and probably would be for the remainder of the festive period. I discovered the full length edition first, not on the TV, but on Facebook, as many people had shared it. After sharing myself, I was shocked to see Ally Fogg’s response this evening.

The article in short, written with the same beauty and creativity as the advert in question, claims the advert exploits for commercial gain and sugarcoats trench warfare.
Ally Fogg and I do agree on a few things. He/she speak highly of the cinematography and credit the advert with the touching ability to bring a tear to the eye, bringing out sentiment in almost anyone with a pulse.

However, what he/she goes on to say, in my humble opinion, is absolutely absurd to the extent that they manage to contradict themselves. Ally Fogg speaks of the advert bringing a tear to the eye and then seems outraged that we did not see a more accurate representation of trench warfare. To quote ‘Blood and entrails, the vomit and faeces, the rats feasting on body parts’ He/She, then goes on to say  ‘The response might be “Well, they can hardly put that in a Christmas advert can they”‘

….Well there you go. You’ve said it. CHRISTMAS. It is a Christmas advert. It is not an advertisement to enroll in the army because war is actually beautiful and not as bad as everyone makes out. It is an advert for Christmas. The advert shows people coming together, people sharing and loving at Christmas. It shows how two nations at war came together, taking differences aside and being as one human race. It shows the human races’ innate ability to love and to care. It tells the mythical or maybe true story of an event which for half an hour or so, brought people together.  It is a powerful metaphor depicting the true meaning of Christmas,one of the few times in the year that the western world slows down and has time to reflect.

I can only strongly argue that this advert IS appropriate for Christmas because it allows us to sit back and appreciate the work of the armed forces in the past and now in the present.
We, with any common sense know of the struggles, we are not naive. We know that war isn’t the magical and beautiful depiction that Sainsbury’s presents. We know that countries at war don’t get together and play football every Christmas day.

There is no doubt that the advert is for commercial gain. A large company as it is, it will always be their main aim. The advert, in my eyes however is beautiful. It highlights that in the darkest times people can come together and I believe that Ally Fogg, as convincing as He/She may be has completely overlooked this point. It seems Ally Fogg has just simply had nothing better to do than nitpick because He/She believes to have found a moral high ground. The fact that He/she has chosen to suggest that the next Christmas advert will probably depict a scene from Auschwitz because they see no moral difference, I find extremely distasteful.

We will never forget those that we have lost in times of war. Those who have fought will never forget their comrades lost in battle. But it is only fair that for those who played football on No Mans Land on Christmas Day 1914 are able forget their troubles for half an hour, as we can try to do every Christmas as we celebrate and share as one.
#LestWeForget

Click here to see Sainsbury’s beautiful Christmas Avert