What do a Boots Christmas advert featuring a Black Mrs Claus with a troupe of drag-queen elves and a cold Greggs pasty have in common? They both make British men unjustifiably angry!
This year, Boots have released their annual Christmas advert, where they take us behind the scenes at Mrs Claus’ (Bridgerton’s wonderful Adjoa Andoh) “Werkroom”, as she and her fabulous elves scramble to load Santa’s sleigh with (Boots-exclusive) gifts before his annual world-round delivery. As Eve’s “Who’s That Girl?” plays in the background, the queens successfully finish their to-do list just before Mr Claus awakes from his slumber, sluggishly stepping onto the stage to smile, wave, and act as if he had participated in any of the festive preparations.
To top it off, Mrs Claus turns to the camera with a smirk and remarks “You thought it was all him?”, then walks away from the cheering crowd that should ultimately be for her.
For many women across the UK, this is a scene known all too well (although I’m sure some of us could trade our kitchens and pinnies for ateliers and bedazzled gowns); women work hard to go unnoticed by the men who swoop in last minute and take credit. And just to refute furious Daves and Alans in the YouTube comments who state that this advert is “misandrist” and “fake”, it reflects the sad truth that women bear the brunt of Christmas labour, with one in four women saying that their male partners do not contribute at all towards holiday festivities, encompassing shopping, cooking, and cleaning (OnePoll, 2023). What’s more, a separate study stated that 62% of men admit that they sneak away from their families to get “me time” during festive gatherings, with a variety of excuses up their sleeves, such as the notorious “I need a nap”, or the infamous “I’ve got a headache”. (The Sun, 2018)
Furthermore, the beautiful irony here is that men are upset as they feel underrepresented and wrongly portrayed in this piece of media—but women, BIPOC, and the LGBTQIA+ community have had to endure symbolic annihilation for their whole lives. Besides, the worst thing men are being portrayed as in this advert is “lazy”, but men are calling it racist (anti-white) or sexist (anti-man), even when they know it is not truly applicable. Perhaps, this intense resistance against black female leadership is significant following Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 US election. This event has left women feeling silenced and antagonised not just in the States, but globally. Following this, Boots hoped to use this advert to incite humour and light for the future, but many men had missed the memo.
Regardless, Christmas is a time for make-believe—if the UK’s children are allowed to believe that Santa flies via sleigh-and-magic-reindeer, delivering gifts at 0.5% the speed of light (University of Leicester, 2018) to 500 million children worldwide, surely it is not too far-fetched to picture his elves as drag queens and his wife as a black woman?