British supermarket giant Tesco has released a Christmas advertisement in which Santa avoids being quarantined for the Chinese coronavirus by presenting a vaccine passport.
Set to the tune of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, the Tesco Christmas ad features a hyper-diverse cast of characters rushing around to make preparations for the Christian holiday.
At one point the festivities are interrupted by a “Breaking News” announcement warning that “Santa could be quarantined”, but the crisis is averted and Christmas is saved when Santa Claus presents a vaccine passport to border officials, spurring raucous applause.
“This Christmas, nothing’s stopping us,” the advertisement proclaims.
Explaining the rationale behind the marketing campaign, Tesco’s Chief Customer Officer, Alessandra Bellini, said that the company’s research found that the British public “won’t let anything stop them” from celebrating Christmas this year.
“This got us thinking about all the little things that have the potential to get in our way — from running out of mince pies to running late to a Christmas party — and the nation’s determined spirit that ensures we’ll overcome them all.
“We hope our joyful festive ad will resonate and put a smile on people’s faces as we prepare for a season of well-deserved celebrations. Afterall, this Christmas, nothing’s stopping us.”
Health Minister Tells Britons to Get Covid Booster to Avoid Christmas Restrictions https://t.co/PbjReoUT6R
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 7, 2021
The ad may be a touch hopeful, however, as government ministers have suggested that another Christmas lockdown could be on the cards if vaccine booster shot uptake is not to its liking.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government promised last year that it would ease lockdown restrictions for the holiday, yet ultimately caved to pressure and kept restrictions in place throughout much of England during Christmas.
Tesco’s treatment of Father Christmas was perhaps not as harsh as an advertisement from Britain’s socialised healthcare system last year, however, in which he was seen lying on a hospital bed struggling to breathe, presumably after contracting the Wuhan virus.
Just over one year ago, Breitbart London also captured Metropolitan Police officers threatening to arrest a Santa impersonator for violating lockdown restrictions while standing in Trafalgar Square during an anti-lockdown demonstration.
The ad begins with an unconscious Father Christmas being rushed through a hospital corridor on oxygen while one of the clinicians around him — fully kitted out in masks and face shields — asks “Is he responding?”
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 12, 2020
The Tesco Christmas advert, which features a slew of multi-ethnic families celebrating Christmas, does fall in line with the trend on British television screens of portraying an exaggeratedly multicultural cross-section of British society.
Tesco has previously drawn criticism for a 2017 Christmas advertisement that failed to include any visibly Christian characters or Christian symbols, while at the same time featuring people in Muslim garb, Sikhs, and a pair of homosexual dads.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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