Before posting it on social media, it’s important to look over the content to make sure it is not offensive, insensitive or would provoke anger. With the Palestine-Israel conflict going on, people have been careful in what they post online but many believe that UK retail brand Marks & Spencer (M&S) was sending a message through their Christmas promotional videos.
On Tuesday (31st October), M&S posted several Christmas promotional videos on their Instagram page with the first one being a teaser, showing a woman with blue eyeliner staring at a fire. A day later, the brand posted an AI-generated photo that showed the burning of paper hats with the colours red, green, and white which are also the same colours as the Palestinian flag.
This led many to believe that the posts may be a subliminal message of their support towards the genocide. Following that, the company continued to post more promotional videos of celebrities destroying items with those specific colours. Netizens from all over the world called out the brand for the insensitive posts and even accused them of deliberately choosing those colours to show their support for Palestine’s oppressors.
Earlier today (Thursday, 2nd November), M&S took down the photo and posted a statement to address the backlash. The company explained that the choice of colours was coincidental as they’re also the traditional festive colours used for Christmas. “While the intent was to playfully show that some people just don’t enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats over the festive season, we have removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused,” they wrote.
Despite the apology, many were still sceptical about the whole thing. Even influencer Ceddy Ang tweeted, “OF COURSE you’d remove the photo. You thought you ate with that shitty visual. What did you type in Midjourney (AI software)? ‘Papers that look like Palestinian flag burning at the fireplace but don’t make it look so obvious but still a little obvious for the Internet’????”.
The entrepreneur also pointed out that Malaysians have already started boycotting the brand and flooding the Malaysian branch’s social media with comments showing their support for Palestine. Netizens showed support for Ceddy’s tweet commenting that they also believe the choice of colours was deliberate and will no longer be supporting the brand.
At the time of writing, M&S Malaysia has yet to address the backlash and boycott directed at them as well. What do you think about the whole situation? Do you agree that the UK brand was sending a message to the people about whose side they were on?
