John Lewis ad fiasco shows that advertisers should spare us the tiresome woke sermonising
This year’s Christmas adverts are yet to drop but, if current trends are anything to go by, it seems certain that at least one will feature a boy in a dress. Perhaps we’ll see a beaming Santa handing a Coca-Cola to a boy in a dress. Or a culturally diverse family, with a boy in a dress centre-stage, sitting down to a Marks and Spencer Christmas lunch.
British department store John Lewis got in first. Earlier this month, it released a new advert for its home contents insurance which featured a young boy in a dress, high heels and make-up flamboyantly blazing a trail of destruction through his impressively large house, while mum and sister barely manage an eye-roll.