Major supermarket ditches Christmas advert after bizarre backlash against John Lewis

The John Lewis advert has sparked some bizarre backlash (Picture: John Lewis)

As Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey begin their seasonal defrosting, Christmas adverts have begun making their way to our screens.

The likes of Aldi, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all offered up their festive adverts in the run-up to the one we had all been waiting for.

But, despite sparking plenty of tears in recent years, John Lewis managed to spark complaints from some fans.

Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer issued an apology after criticism over their advert showing burning Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

And now, Iceland has decided to not run a Christmas advert at all this year.

In 2018, the supermarket’s advert was banned from television because it was branded ‘too political’, as it raised awareness of rainforest destruction caused by palm production.

Iceland have decided to not put out a Christmas advert this year (Picture: Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This year, Iceland, who has publicly backed Metro.co.uk’s Formula For Change campaign to help struggling families, made the choice not to run one at all.

Richard Walker, Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods, said: ‘We’ve received a lot of enquiries about when we’ll be airing our Christmas TV ad. This year Iceland will not be releasing one.

‘As a business we were faced with a decision. Do we spend millions creating and sharing a TV advert or do we invest the money supporting our customers during the cost-of-living crisis?

‘This was a no brainer for us. I am grateful that as a family-run company, we can make the decisions we believe are right for our business and our customers.’

The statement went on: ‘We have chosen to invest in keeping prices low for our customers – including our Christmas Bonus Cards Saving scheme – giving shoppers £15 back when they top up £100, offering a turkey roast dinner bundle for 8-10 people for just £30, slashing prices on over 1,000 household staples and expanding our £1 value range – offering hundreds of freezer fillers for just £1 or less.’

This comes after John Lewis was forced to field peculiar adverts from its 2023 Christmas advert.

The retailer’s new festive ad, titled ‘Snapper, the Perfect Tree’, has certainly divided opinion, with some loving the Little Shop of Horrors-esque tale of a sentient Venus flytrap, and others finding the tale – which features Andrea Bocelli singing the original track Festa in the background – a bit too weird for their liking.

And now some people have a problem with the family – which consists of eight-year-old actor Teddy Holton-Frances playing a young boy who brings the fast-growing plant into his family’s home, where he lives with his mother, grandmother and older sibling.

For some reason, even though there are plenty of people who live in single-parent households across the nation and the world, several people on social media were seemingly furious that there wasn’t a father or grandfather present.

John Lewis didn’t let the critical remarks about the lack of a father or grandfather go unnoticed, with an employee responding on the brand’s official account: ‘Showing a mum and a grandma, we always attempt to show a broad representation of British life across our advertising. This is a very realistic scenario for thousands of families in the UK.’

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‘This was a no brainer for us.’