John Lewis' Christmas ad slammed as ‘sexist’ by furious viewers

It wouldn’t be the festive season without a John Lewis Christmas advert, however now that the promotional clip has arrived, one look at the comments on social media proves not everyone's a fan. Take a look at this year's ad:

The two-minute advert finally dropped on Thursday (9 November) and it focuses on a young boy named Alfie who visits a market with his gran. He picks up a box labelled ‘grow your own perfect Christmas tree’ and asks if he can have it. She agrees, and he takes it home and finds a seed inside the box, once he plants it and watches it grow along with his mum and sibling, it soon becomes clear that the plant is not a Christmas tree at all.

Rather, a gigantic Venus flytrap named Snapper – and it looks just as terrifying as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.

John Lewis’ Christmas adverts always have a lot of hype around their release and this year is no exception. However, a select group of commentators on social media are seemingly offended after watching the heartwarming and funny clip because it doesn’t feature a dad.

John Lewis

Yep, in 2023 people are upset that a family in an advert doesn’t have a nuclear family, even though almost a quarter of all families with dependent children in Britain are single-parent families, that's around 1.8 million single parents.

The majority of lone-parent families - around 90% - are led by women, according to single parent charity Gingerbread.

The high-end department store brand always tries to represent different types of families in Britain beyond the typical nuclear family, but this has upset viewers so much they’re calling the advert ‘sexist’.

One disgruntled viewer posted on X: “Is the John Lewis ad woke or sexist? or both? No dad?”

Another social media user complained: “I enjoyed the advert but it would have been nice to see the Dad or even Grandad. Fathers play just as an important role in their children’s lives.”

John Lewis

Someone else simply said: “Where’s the DAD???!!!!!”

The official John Lewis Twitter account has been responding to viewers all morning to defend the ad. In response to the comment above, the brand’s social media page said: “This ad shows a mum and a grandma. We always attempt to show a broad representation of British life, single parent families make up nearly a quarter of families with dependent children in the UK and they aren’t often shown on TV.”

Amidst the negative backlash from a few fans, other viewers are praising the ad for representing all types of families. One thankful viewer wrote: “As a family where Christmas has always been just me, my mum, and my child, thanks for representing our family unit in this year’s ad (but we always fail houseplants so poor Snapper wouldn’t had stood a chance with us )”

Another X user said: “I like this a lot, reminds me of Christmases growing up just me, mum and nan (no sentient, giant Venus Fly Trap, alas).”

While a third commented: “Some people just need to appreciate every family is different and have different traditions. This year will just be mum granny and I, cherishing the time we have left together and making memories. the perfect Christmas is whatever you want it to be.”

Thank you, John Lewis!