Maybe it's just me but this ad just winds me up - what won't these ad men use to drum up sales - using WW1 to flog their wares. Diabolical - rant over.
Well what I thought was more diabolical, when speaking to a couple of teenagers this week, was they had no idea that the football match actually took place. So if a money making ad raises awareness( and a few £ to the British Legion in the process) then I gave no problem with that.
I thought it was beautifully done. And sensitively enough to not press the Sainsbury's sell.
Me too, love the Christmas adverts - the John Lewis one is superb.Originally Posted by Glamdring
Exactly. Some people seem to be on standby for something to be offended by.
Must be me then ..... looking forward to the Hiroshima ad next year or the 1915 Christmas where they were threatened with death if the previous years actions were repeated
Last edited by lewismark; 15th November 2014 at 23:37.
i agree. Far ahead of the other offerings this remembrance centenary year. And it was made in collaboration with The Royal British Legion.
I saw the ad for the first time this evening, at the local cinema, and there was an audible muttering at the end when the Sainsbury's logo was displayed.
I thought that the ad was totally disrespectful - some subjects are just not appropriate for commercial exploitation.
Me too. I don't understand the association between a supermarket and an incredible and spontaneous act of peace. Had it been solely for the Royal British Legion then I'd be all for it. It's not going to make me want to shop at Sainsbury's, unless of course they give all the profit from selling items in any way associated with Christmas to the aforementioned charity. And the War Graves Commission too.
And back in 1984 when Mcartney made a similar music video were you all equally outraged?? How dare that ex Beatle make profit from the suffering of those back in WW1
I guess though that 'those advertisers' at Sainsburys are worse in some way than a pop star who did pretty much the same thing?
When I first heard of the outrage when the video was released, Mcartneys song instantly sprang to mind and I certainly don't recall any public outcry back in 84 but then again times have changed and some of the audio clips being played on Radio 2 such as a blogger who was outraged generated the mental image of someone who was a Daily Mail reader, wore a trainspotters jacket and spoke through their nose all the time.
It's an advert, a donation is being made to a charity that supports our soliders and their families..... Maybe they should take Morrisons stance and not allow ex soldiers to sell poppies in store?? But then I'd be generalising wouldn't I and being a bit short sighted as it was only a couple of instances where poppy sellers were unable to sell poppies in store.
Basically, any advertiser would have been damned if they did, or didn't make an advert that was in any way associated with WW1. Maybe Sainsburys should just have done a feel good advert that was Christmas based and pocketed all the profits as per John Lewis / waitrose?
Paul
Excellent advert - first advert I've watched in ages!
Rememberance Day this year marked 100 years since the First World War, so is somewhat high profile.
If it brings people into the store and accordingly more in the charity pot, I say well done.
Makes a change from years of videos showing starving African children.
Personally, I'm more distressed with the member who thinks its cool to type in blue.
I thought it was an interesting move for the company to use the ad space on this centenary year to promote the sale of an item of which the profits go directly to a charity it has supported for 20 years, rather than the more traditional approach of hammering home the need to buy as much as possible from one's stores.
Amazing how raising money for charity can offend people.
Last edited by eduk; 16th November 2014 at 10:09.
Who is it offensive to? Because I can assure you that the Armed Forces do not find it offensive in any way
RIAC
I watched it last night, it did not strike me as a Christmas advert, all I took away was that Sainsburys were proud to support the British Legion.
I find Christmas distasteful in general and won't be participating this year. With regards to the adverts I pause or mute so I've seen the Sainsbury's one, but have no idea what is being said.
Wasn't the film of this day in time shown on the telly a few weeks ago....? Can't remember the name of the film but the Sainsburys ad looked identical.
JL 2014 ad is better, IMHO and the respective 2013 ads were superior, again, IMHO ;-)
You have to take your hat off to capitalism's inventiveness.
It creates wars, kills your relatives, and then tries to sell you sprouts on the back of it.
Given the longstanding relationship between Sainsburys and the Royal Legion and their vocal support of the ad I would expect no less. Hence my surprise that it seems to have riled a few here.
This; I think the advert is great and does raise awareness to younger people.
What exactly is there to get offended about?
I thought it was a very well made advert. If it educates some of today's younger generation about the incredible event depicted then all the better. It hardly rammed a message of 'come shop at Sainsburys' down your throat. And bearing in mind it has the Royal British Legion's seal of approval it does seem a bit daft to get all righteous about it.
As an aside to those offended,does that mean you wouldn't go and see a film/watch a tv series etc that was based on WW1/2/Korean War/Vietnam/Afghanistan/Desert Storm etc etc etc because it glorified the wars in question and was profiting from them?
Sainsburys should be ashamed . Profiteering through brand image with a token gesture of a chocolate bar .
Why not make a considerable charity donation rather than go to all the rigmarole of producing a short film and 5000 odd bars of Chocolate .
If they had actually supplied troops in ww1 then it would be different but they didn't , millions died and to turn this into some sort of Happy Christmas message is gut wrenching .
If you are one of the cases that don't get it then get back to your Eastenders Omnibus ...
Last edited by Tomaitch; 16th November 2014 at 20:13.
What ? You have spoken to all of them have you? I didn't realize we had a self appointed General in the camp . My apologies !
What next ?
Wall Mart selling authentic Vietnemese Flame grilling machines in Saigon in 2019 ?
Or maybe Asda creeps over to Rorkes Drift in 2029 to film a Beef Jerky commercial ...
Last edited by Tomaitch; 16th November 2014 at 20:24.
Are you really that offended that you chose to type out three consecutive replies?
For goodness sake , grow up.
BTW , I'm sure Sainsburys charity donations are, indeed, considerable. And , as quoted before, even if the advert strikes a chord with a number of people who had no knowledge of this actual event, then that's a positive, no ?
We live in an age of visual media and like it or not, this sort of thing strikes a cord with far more people than a history book. It was beautifully shot and will doubtless resonate with a far greater range of people than a newspaper article.
Take Saving Private Ryan, I genuinely think that first 15 minutes should be shown to school children studying the second world war. I studied WW2 at school but the images in that film affected me more than reading about it.
Hopefully a lot of people who had never heard of the Christmas day truce will now be aware of it and as a wider result, may be slightly more inclined to bung a couple more quid to the Legion.
I just don't see the link between Sainsbury's and what they're portraying in the advertisement (but having said that I'm not convinced my purchasing decisions are swayed by advertising). Wouldn't it have been better to have run the ad from the 1st to the 11th November to promote the Royal British Legion, with Sainsbury's paying for the TV space and telling people they can buy a poppy in any of their stores? Sure, the temporary ceasefire happened on Christmas day, but advertise the cause rather than the supermarket.
Yeh nearly 4 million to the RBL last year alone.....they really are a bunch of barstewards.
I agree with you Dave about the Film , best intro I have seen , just amazing . But something done in the in the form of commercialism is not palatable .
How about an aerial tour of all the cemetery's in France and Belgium to remind the young of what actually happened and the hundreds of people that tender these areas and keep them
Immaculate . That tells far more of a story in my book .
I thought the War Graves Commission looked after Commonwealth graves (all of which are made from Portland stone) and was funded by governments of countries in the Commonwealth and was separate from the Royal British Legion. Is that so? I'm assuming that the RBL looks after ex-servicemen and women.
Only shame here is your posts to be honest.
I'm sure it was a labour of love for Spielberg but I reckon the film company didn't do too badly out of it!
Along with your Diction ..
Last edited by Tomaitch; 16th November 2014 at 22:10.
The WGC has six member countries...the UK,Australia,India,Canada,New Zealand and South Africa...all of whom fund the WGC with their contributions directly proportional to their percentage of war graves.
The RBL is a separate entity but works in partnership with the WGC in providing trips and visits to war graves and memorials.
To the best of my knowledge, the RBL does not provide any funding to the WGC.
I didn't know all the gravestones were made from Portland Stone....learn something new every day!
By "diction" I assume you mean "spelling" and "grammar"?
Last edited by Tomaitch; Today at 21:10.
A post you had to edit hehehe.
Go and surf for another post to troll.
The advert didn't offend me as such, but I did think it somewhat distasteful.
I was in Sainsbury's this morning. The chocolate wasn't due in till this afternoon. Too late for me.
Napoleon and Wellington have featured in all sorts of odd film/ad/TV situations without causing the above ire. Is it all a matter of time because nobody here was alive then as they weren't in 1815?
Actually got my daughter asking a few interesting questions for a change after we watched it pre film at the cinema ,so agree wholeheartedly with your views.
I saw it in full on Youtube in the ad space before one of the videos I was going to watch.
I quite liked it. There's little doubt there is some exploitation there but it's done in association with the British Legion and it was nicely done...I'm certainly not 'offended' by it. Seems anyone is 'offended' by anything these days when they mean they just didn't like it or it wasn't to their taste.
I never even considered that it might be in bad taste.
I thought that an advertiser spending several millions to publicise how Christmas encouraged the one rare act of humanity amid one of the most grotesque episodes in mankind's history might be a good thing.
So it's not about Sainsbury's at all? I thought it was a Christmas advertisement to encourage people to shop at Sainsbury's.
I've pondered this before and yes, I think that distance in time makes war seem less awful.
I don't mind the Sainsbury's ad but the troops all look a little too clean IMO.
Cheers,
Neil.
Yes :-) We (SWMBO and myself) both commented how amazingly clean and healthy they all looked and nice shiny white teeth; I have this thing about white shiny teeth in films/tv.... nobody wants to be on the telly or in a film now with anything less than perfect teeth. They can be prisoners that have been in some darkest slime hole for 10 years, or some slaves in a Roman Empire type film, and STILL their teeth are perfect and white.
I found the advert distasteful, using powerful emotions based on real life events to sell more crappy product. This advert is deeply manipulative and tries to convince people into buying at Sainsburys in order to do good for the beloved memory of "our boys".
"Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms,
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms".
Whatever happened to Jesus?
Jesus?
Yes. But not quite in the way that you're suggesting.
Their central idea is that Christmas is for sharing, and yes, they'd like you to do some of that at Sainsbury's, and they've chosen to illustrate that idea with the famous WW1 christmas 'truce'.
But to suggest they co-opting or debasing that moment I don't think is true. They are referencing it. But then it's in the public domain.
The Napoloeonic wars have been referenced in ads, so has Rourke's Drift and countless other famous historical events. And nobody complained about them.
True, but they were not within living memory.
Is the Great War still within living memory?
I had an idea the last of our combatants at least had passed away a while back.
Cheers,
Neil.
So what? How about the Carling Dambuster's ad? Don't remember any howl's of outrage.
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