John Lewis and the dreadful little emperors

John Lewis has accidentally created a perfect depiction of everything wrong with our precious Little Emperors in Britain 2021. Their latest advertisement — now pulled by the company after a complaint from the Financial Conduct Authority — is a minute-long home insurance promotion that is dripping in entitlement and wokeness, starring a kid who has never heard the word no.

We start in the ransacked bedroom, with lids missing from nail polish bottles and red stiletto shoes amongst the many items thrown all over the floor. A little child pops up, scattering the innards of the cushion he must have dismembered. He is of course a boy in make-up and a dress, because even home insurance offers now must be propaganda exercises on the mutability of gender. The boy-girl stares into the camera like he’s on a catwalk, accompanied by the loud clip clop of heels. Do heels really make such a racket on carpeted floors? The little tyrant then moves through the house decorating it with nail polish and generally wrecking the place.