‘The ongoing furore over Boots’ Christmas ad only proves its point‘
It's the most wonderful time of the year – or is it? According to some, it's actually time to boycott Boots stores, and it's all down to the brand’s 2024 Christmas advert.
For those who haven’t seen it yet (where have you been!?) the health and beauty retailer’s festive campaign takes us behind-the-scenes at Father Christmas’ bedazzled ‘werkroom’. There, we meet Mrs Claus (Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh) who is revealed to be the linchpin behind her husband’s world-famous delivery round and is supported in her Christmas Eve preparations by an array of LGBTQIElves and drag queens. It’s all very magical and camp and feels a bit like watching an episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race after a couple of glasses of fizz. So, pretty bang on for Christmas, then.
As Father Christmas awakes from a deep slumber – having had his feet up while his worker bees have sprinkled the final touches on the biggest job of the year – and heads off in his sleigh to make his rounds, Mrs Claus turns to the camera with a smirk, breaking the fourth wall and saying to viewers: “You thought it was all him?” The end of 60 glitter-filled seconds becomes a nod to a concept so many of us already know to be true: women do much of the work when it comes to Christmas.
For women watching the advert, this light fun-poking at a situation many of them will know all too well, is a perfect payoff to a glam festive caper – and it speaks to a wider truth. From the cooking and cleaning to decorating the tree, the present-purchasing, the present-wrapping and the present-returning, women universally bear the brunt over the holiday season. Research backs this up, and even shows that men actively avoid getting involved. One YouGov study found that 61% of women purchase presents, compared to 8% of men, while 54% of women do the big Christmas food shop compared to just 13% of men. As for cooking, the results are similarly split, with 54% of women serving up the all-important meal over 17% of men. And that’s not all, in a separate study, 62% of men admitted to ‘seeking time away’ from family during Christmas gatherings, with a further 18% avoiding the washing up and 15% avoiding ‘any sort of tidying up’ altogether.
Meanwhile, one man — Santa, Father Christmas, St. Nick — year after year, takes all the credit. It’s this that Boots set out to playfully challenge in its 2024 advert. “We are on a mission to spread magic and excitement to beauty enthusiasts this Christmas, whilst also recognising the unsung powerhouses who make Christmas so special,” says Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer at Boots. Andoh agrees, saying that she was “[excited to] play the vital and often under-valued role of Mrs Claus.”
Of course, if women – or say, a huge retail brand – dare acknowledge this? Bah, humbug.
Unfortunately, despite Boots and Andoh’s best efforts to gift and shift some festive appreciation onto someone other than the man in the red suit – like the mums/girlfriends/daughters who spend hours/weeks/months preparing for the big day – the memo has been missed. What's more, the reaction has been absurd – and rage-filled.
“Oh dear, that’s now Boots added to the growing list of retailers I won’t use. Shame,” one person commented on YouTube in response to the advert, with another writing: “Defo not shopping at Boots this year.” Furious trolls across social media have dismissed the campaign as ‘woke’ and apparently missed any light fun-poking in their fury.
But why the uproar? The answer to that, it seems, is ‘too much diversity’ and the decentring of men. “It’s racist (anti-white) and sexist (anti-man). Go woke, go broke. Shame on you,” another man added on X. “Don't see myself represented here, Boots obviously don't want my business,” yet another man wrote. I wonder, did he feel just as ‘un-represented’ when, in 2016, John Lewis put a boxer dog in the starring role of its famous Christmas advert? That, I recall, faced surprisingly little backlash. In the pecking order of women versus dogs, it is painfully clear who is allowed to take centre stage.
This resistance to a Black woman leading the narrative feels especially poignant following Kamala Harris’ defeat against convicted felon Donald Trump during the recent US election, a time of increased uncertainty for women and those within the LGBTQIA+ community, not just in the States but across the globe. In its advert, Boots seeks to celebrate these communities, offering a glimmer of hope in the darkness that has shadowed the world in recent years. At a time that should be about season’s greetings and sequins — which this advert delivers in spades — isn’t that something to be commended, rather than condemned?
Ironically, those taking to social media to shout about their intended boycott of Boots are unlikely to even shop there as it is. According to the retailer, 89% of their Advantage Card members are female – so it makes sense that their Christmas advert targets (and champions) this audience. Perhaps these online trolls cannot accept that not everything is designed for the male viewing pleasure?
Considering that Father Christmas himself is (spoiler alert!) a fictional character, and that this is literally-just-a-TV-advert – what does it all matter anyway? While Christmas remains predominantly a Christian festival, much of what we celebrate today — both secular and otherwise — are traditions and themes invented to delight and amuse children… and fuel consumerism, of course. Sadly, the anti-Boots trolls seem to have had a complete sense of humour failure.
With that in mind, if we are happy to believe that Father Christmas is a man who flies around the globe in a sleigh pulled by nine magical reindeer, defying logic and time by delivering gifts to all of the world’s 2.4 billion children in just one night – then why can’t we allow ourselves to believe that his wife might be Black? Or that his ‘werkroom’ employees include drag queens? In fact, we should credit Boots with offering us the most realistic view of Christmas we’ve seen to date: that of women doing all the hard work.
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