UK supermarket chain Tesco has come under fire on social media, after its 2017 Christmas advert featured a Muslim family celebrating the holiday.
The advert, which is around a minute in length, depicts a series of families from different backgrounds celebrating and preparing their respective Christmas dinners. It was promoted with the hashtag #EveryonesWelcome.
However, one scene showing two Muslim families greeting each other as one arrives at the others' house has caused uproar among a certain contingent of Twitter users, resulting in what the London Evening Standard calls a “racist backlash”.
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“I wonder will they have a white family celebrating a Muslim holiday”, queried one user, while others claimed they would be boycotting the supermarket chain over the advert.
The controversial right-wing news website Breitbart also got involved, bemoaning the advert for “featuring Sikhs, Muslims, and what appears to be a gay couple with a child, but no obviously Christian characters or iconography”.
However, Tesco doubled down against the backlash. A Tesco spokesperson said: “Everyone is welcome at Tesco this Christmas and we're proud to celebrate the many ways our customers come together over the festive season”, the Independent reports.
Other Twitter users were more supportive of the inclusive message:
