This new advert from Etsy gets us more emotional than when Frosty the Snowman melts. The Christmas ad went viral this past weekend after featuring a Black gay couple going home for the holidays to meet the family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS8npcVD4Ik&feature=emb_logo
The advertisement, is part of the site’s ‘Gift Like You Mean it’ holiday campaign, follows two partners named Brandon and David as they attend a bustling family gathering.
With Brandon’s nervous body language due to meeting David’s family, David reassures him that “they’re going to love him”. From the moment the door opens it’s welcoming hugs and kisses from aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and grandparents.
Despite how kind everyone is being from getting him a chair to sit at the table to being a part of conversation, Brandon still has his reasons to be nervous and skittish. It’s only when an older male relative we assume is the grandfather, comes over and gives a gift to Brandon.
“We didn’t forget about you,” he says, “welcome to the family.”
Brandon opens the present to reveal an embroidered ornament with Brandon and David’s names and faces. “I love it,” Brandon replies with a wide smile, while he and his partner embrace.
The ad ends with a shot of the ornament hanging on the tree, alongside another one that’s embroidered with a family portrait of ‘The Wilsons’.
The sweet commercial delighted and touched LGBTQ+ viewers, many of whom thought it accurately captured the anxiety of going home for the holidays and presented a beautiful narrative of acceptance.
In a 2019 Kantar Group study, 44% of polled LGBTQ+ people said that they have considered skipping a holiday celebration with their biological family — either due to anxiety around their appearance or fear that they won’t be accepted because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.
“Thank you so much for this, Etsy,” wrote one YouTube commenter. “This is the first time that I, a Black gay male, get to see myself presented in such an accurate light.”
Another said, “I love how I was able to feel the nervousness, excitement, and anxiety all captured in 30 seconds.”
With all the positive reactions across social media, it’s safe to say that more Christmas ads with representation is on our wishlist to Santa.
Check out the tear-jerking reactions from Twitter below:
I gonna watch this 50 more times. Leave me alone.
— Luii (@LuiiForte) November 6, 2020
This is heartwarming as hell after the dumpster fire that has been 2020 I didn’t think anything could get me in the holiday spirit but this commercial did?
— kristalisbougie (@kristal100) November 5, 2020
like he got a gift and a welcome to the family? ??????? pic.twitter.com/WFfloXq4H4
— Courtney (@xdarkANDlovelyx) November 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/MrDavidJ415/status/1324425958099542016
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