G’wan Santa.
As we inch closer and closer to Christmas, more supermarkets and big brands are dropping their seasonal advertisements left, right and centre.
We were all touched by John Lewis’ tale of unexpected friendship, and we were equally excited to see the long-awaited rerun of Kevin the Carrot in the Aldi commercial.
The latest supermarket to drop their own commercial is Tesco, and it features a cameo from the main man himself.
In the ad, we see an array of people eager to make up for a year of lockdowns by getting fully into the Christmas spirit.
One woman zips into town on an electric scooter, while a man (literally) lights up the office party with a fiery Christmas pudding.
In another scene, a busy mum running late for her daughter’s appointment with Santa bribes a shopping centre elf with a pile of mince pies.
After last Christmas, we’re determined to make it a good one. This Christmas #NothingsStoppingUs pic.twitter.com/0maY5osds1
— Tesco (@Tesco) November 13, 2021
However, the festivities are interrupted when a news bulletin announces the possibility that Father Christmas may have to be quarantined.
Santa, however, being a reasonable and responsible citizen, is double-vaxxed and gets through border control by flashing his QR code, and Christmas is saved.
The commercial, like many on TV right now, is cheerful, topical and very tongue-in-cheek.
Having said that, it appears to have ruffled with a few feathers, and it wasn’t long until #BoycottTesco was trending on Twitter.
As anti-vaxxers voiced their outrage, others saw some unexpected benefits in a possible Tesco boycott.
One Twitter user wrote: “Absolutely f***ing genius stroke by Tesco to show Santa using a vaccine passport on his phone. Immediately triggered all the anti-vaxxers into boycotting the store, meaning it’s the safest place to go and do your supermarket shop. So many birds with one stone.”
Another wrote: “Heading to Tesco now, safe in the knowledge that all the antivaxxers have decided to #BoycottTesco because they got triggered by Santa showing a Covid pass in an advert.
“Thanks for doing your bit to keep us all safe. Stay home.”
