I love the asda ad...

mumps

margaretclare wrote: »

It was changed in the 1990 Budget following a victory of the Conservative party. I spoke to the outgoing, and successive, Chancellor Nigel Lawson on BBC 'Election Call' and he agreed with the points I made. That was my small contribution.

Basically, up to then a woman's earned income fell, for tax purposes, outside the remit of the Married Women's Property Acts of the 1880s. That was because it was never envisaged that a married woman would have her own earnings and, up to that change, whatever a married woman earned was considered for tax purposes to be part of her husband's income. By the end of the 1980s at that General Election, I had a file of correspondence going back 20 years, the then Equal Opportunities Commission had taken up the issue. Every time there was a change in anything at all to do with the tax on my earned income my husband was written to about it. When I objected about this to the tax office I was told that 'for tax purposes my earnings were part of his income'.

After that Budget we had independent personal taxation.

How ridiculous, I just realised that Nigel Lawson could just have told you to elect separate taxation unless he didn't know. Presumably the Equal Opportunities Commission didn't know either. Wow I must have moved in very well informed circles.

Marisco

Welshwoofs wrote: »

I've seen it but it bears absolutely no resemblence to my reality (thank God!).

Last year I ordered Christmas in from Forman & Field so we spent our morning sipping champagne, nibbling smoked salmon and dinner was a matter of shoving everything that was pre-prepared 'ready to cook' in the oven.

My view is that if people want to go all out celebrating christmas then they should share in the tasks - it's not down to the woman alone to 'create' a special time for everyone else.

Of course I'm not surprised at the advert and I don't know why people bother complaining because even a cursory glance at almost every advert for cleaning products and foods depicts a woman in a 2.4 nuclear family doing all the cooking and chores. The only difference between the adverts now and in the 50s in fact are that in the 50s these women were called 'housewives' and were shown doing tasks for the family all day whereas now they're always called 'busy Mums' and depicted rushing around between work and household chores. Men in adverts are either a) providers of DIY tasks or b) shown as bumbling idiots who have to have women to organise them.

The irony is that advertisers are almost exclusively 20-something metrosexuals.

Doesn't mine either!

Exactly! Isn't this the point, we all know it's not real, it's an ad, it just seems pointless waste of time complaining. All the Xmas ads are unreal, and bears very little resemblance to most peoples' reality.

Tropez

newcook wrote: »

I think a lot of people associate the ad with the festive period is because it was coca cola who gave father Christmas/santa his red coloured suit!

That, I think, is part of it.

I also think it is the fact that for the longest time the Coca-Cola ad campaign barely changed. It incorporated the same theme of truck after truck stocked with Coca-Cola moving down the road to the tune of "Holidays are coming".

Most ad campaigns change year on year, whereas Coca-Cola's was static until around 2001 when they moved to more regionalised Christmas advertising, only to return to the more "traditional" advertising a few years later. Because most seasonal ads chop and change children forget them rather quickly but Coca-Cola's didn't and so every year, when kids see it again they remember it and it gets preserved in their mind. As they grow into teenagers and later adults the Coca-Cola "Holidays are coming" song becomes a memory of childhood and as such, becomes a reminder of (in many cases, not all, of course) happy times eagerly awaiting Christmas.

Many households have their Christmas traditions and obviously television has their own "traditions" for the festive period - Bridge on the River Kwai seems to be on every year, a Bond movie on Christmas Day, The Snowman, various Christmas specials of popular programmes repeated ad nauseum, the Queen's Speech etc. and for many this consistency becomes part of one's idea of Christmas, as much as trees, decorations, turkey, champagne etc. The Coca-Cola ad plays into that psychology by remaining so very similar each and every year.

purple.sarah

I do most of the Christmas organising but that's probably because I'm planning all year to get the best deals in the sales before DH is thinking about it. I am trying to encourage him to take more responsibility for choosing gifts for his family this year, after all he knows them better than me, but no ideas so far! I think some (not all!) women are more invested in the emotional aspects of Christmas like picking the perfect present than some men, which could be why we end up doing more.

I actually think the Asda ad portrays the woman as a perfectionist who can't let go, her husband did help with the Christmas tree shopping and picked a tree but she insisted on a bigger one instead, which they then struggled to fit in the car. Then he helped set the tree up and she was giving him directions about exactly where it had to be. He was trying to help but nothing he did was good enough! The ad equally does men a disservice by portraying them as clueless and helpless.

If anything it shows that Christmas could be less stressful if we let go of unrealistic expectations of perfection and don't sweat the small stuff but I don't think that was the idea Asda was going for since they sell the small stuff!

bratz81

I find the advert extremely sexist and annoying. It's offensive to both men and women, and offensive to people who don't/can't have children (only mum's are good a xmas) plus upsetting to people who are without beloved mum's.

cjj_2

victory wrote: »

Have you seen the asda ad where the mum rushes around trying to make xmas perfect and at the end she sits down exhausted and her OH says 'what's for tea love?' Excellent, it has had over 1,000 complaints so far and Asda have said that they are not taking it off even though the complainers say it is not true to life as men play a large part in the pre-organizing of xmas and are very involved with buying presents,family etc.

I reckon it is hilarious and very true:rotfl:

How much is xmas down to us ladies?;)

I love it too x

Sorry just noticed its upsetting to some people, I hadn't thought of it like that x

Geordie_bear

They should really bin it & it's insulting to peoples intelligence, it's a chauvinistic take on family life & not reflective of modern family. Reverse the roles & the ad would not get past the censures. Why is there always a different rule book for women?

Errata

I'd be more impressed if people complained about Walmart treating its staff like rubbish.

Geordie_bear

victory wrote: »

Have you seen the asda ad where the mum rushes around trying to make xmas perfect and at the end she sits down exhausted and her OH says 'what's for tea love?' Excellent, it has had over 1,000 complaints so far and Asda have said that they are not taking it off even though the complainers say it is not true to life as men play a large part in the pre-organizing of xmas and are very involved with buying presents,family etc.

I reckon it is hilarious and very true:rotfl:

How much is xmas down to us ladies?;)

would you find an ad equally as funny if it protrayed women to be lazy spongers treating men as meal tickets whilst the man worked hard and made plenty of dough?

globetraveller

I don't like it but would never dream about putting in a complaint. The reason I don't like it, is that it shows Christmas as something to dread. If you are a single parent, you do have it all to do and its just so tiring.
At least Asda could show the time saving prepared veg:)