The UK’s advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed complaints that grocery chain Sainsbury’s Christmas advert was racist as it featured a black family.
As reported on B&T on Tuesday, viewers of the ad had called the spot out as “woke”, unrepresentative of the British population and something they could not “relate” to.
Others even took to social media to say they would be boycotting Sainsbury’s due to the advert.
The minute-long ad is the work of Wieden+Kennedy London – and the first in a trio of similar themed spots – and featured a heartwarming phone call between a dad and his daughter as they share their excitement for Christmas day.
According to ASA, the ad received a total of five complaints from viewers and added it would not be taking any action. It added it had assessed the advert and concluded it did not “breach advertising rules”.
The brouhaha surrounding the ad has gripped UK media channels in recent days.
It even led comic Munya Chawawa to spoof the whole affair in a witty post that’s since gone viral.
It the skit Chawawa plays both a manager of a Sainsbury’s and an angry customer he manages to expose just how ridiculous it is to complain about a supermarket being racist and especially over a Christmas advert, which isn’t an exclusive holiday for white British people.
Check out the roasting below:
Somewhere in Sainsbury’s… 🎄😡#SainsburysXmas pic.twitter.com/tIFCzA6CFa
— Munya Chawawa (@munyachawawa) November 17, 2020