Two Christmas adverts #BusterTheBoxer

Mark 9 Comments

It’s only early November but hoh! hoh! hoh! it’s time for Christmas adverts.

The first one (#BusterTheBoxer), from multi-million pound business John Lewis (@JohnLewisRetail, not the poor chap @JohnLewis) has upset some ‘real country people’ but is putting a smile on the faces of many more people across the country. Have you seen it?

Deliberately or not, I hope deliberately, it sends a very political message about us being at one with living creatures on this world whether they be pets or wild mammals.  You couldn’t get more politically-charged mammals than Foxes, Badgers, Grey Squirrels and Hedgehogs – all sharing our world and sharing our values seems to be the message of the advert (yes it’s a pity it wasn’t a Red Squirrel but so few of them have Equity cards).  Bring on the Boxing Day hunt (it’s traditional) and a bit of Badger-baiting (it’s traditional) with some ill-advised policy from Defra (it’s becoming traditional) on culling Badgers.

The John Lewis ad has had 47,000 ReTweets (RTs) on Twitter in less than a day and will be seen millions of times in the run up to Christmas. Let’s hope that persecuted mammals get a boost from all this exposure and that it spreads a little kindness. And the Wildlife Trusts are John Lewis’s charity partner this year so very well done to them (sign their end the badger cull e-petition here)!

And spreading a little kindness to animals is the message of the second, equally good Christmas ‘ad’, from multi-talented but not multi-million-pound, Findlay Wilde. Have you seen it?

Deliberately it sends a very political message about getting off your backside and writing to your MP. I’ll be sending my MP a letter referring to John Lewis’s Christmas ad and Findlay Wilde’s Christmas message – will you?

 

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9 Replies to “Two Christmas adverts #BusterTheBoxer”

  2. Aye the john lewis advert was good, but Findlay’s was even better. If it had been shown at the parliamentary hearing on driven grouse shooting would have cut through a load of crap.

  3. Brilliant. All you need now is a big company to use Han Harrier just like the one who uses Red Kite and once paid to have the logo on Leeds United shirts. Even got to Wembley that year! This year Leeds United have Greenpeace on their junior shirts and £5.00 goes to Greenpeace for every shirt sold. That is how to get the youth of tomorrow knowing about the environment! Sadly the shirt won’t fit me!!

  4. Fantastic vid by Findlay. Can the RSPB use him? Headlined on their home page?

    It also provided a link to the vid of Ireland fans celebrating the victory over the ABs in a pub in NZ! Its a good day!!

    1. Findlay’s film got me thinking about other filmmakers that could be used as part of a media blitz – by the RSPB maybe (I’m starting to love their homepage btw).

      Ben Locke is a fantastically gifted photographer and filmmaker in the Forest of Dean. Some may remember an exquisite film he made for SpringWatch about Wild Boar. He subsequently worked for the Beeb and distinguished himself on a later program by locating a sleeping Nightjar. Quite a feat but then he’s a phenomenal wildlife tracker as he demonstrated to the Author of the Glos Atlas and myself a few years ago.

      http://www.benlockephotography.co.uk

      Then there is Richard Heap who made the film Consumed, Inside the Belly of the Beast. Fantastic film that highlights where we’re headed unless we wake up soon:
      http://www.slackjaw.co.uk/consumed/

      Rich and other Slack jaw filmmakers are available for hire here:
      https://www.slackjaw.co.uk/gunsforhire/gunsforhire.html

      No not that kind of gun!

  5. The John Lewis ad seems to have generated quite a volume of comments from people living in London and other metropolitan areas who don’t seem to think Foxes are so great…

  6. And merry Christmas to you too, Tom. Sorry (because this always adds sincerity to a comment)….

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