VIDEO: Mulberry nativity parody is an affront to the magic of Christmas

 Margaret Hickey says ‘bah, humbug’ to Mulberry, the red handbag, and what it represents    

The spirit of Christmas Present is well represented by British brand Mulberry’s seasonal advertising campaign for its pricey bags.

At the high end of luxury goods, they retail for up to £1,400 (€1,995).

These advertisements present an eye- catching, red, leather bag as the ultimate gift for Christmas 2015. Fittingly, the advertisements are costly too. They are cleverly constructed, like so much top-brand advertising, especially during the Christmas spendfest. They have become part of the seasonal fare of television entertainment that is paid for, ultimately, by those prepared to splurge on the goods they hype.

Generally, these lavish Christmas ads amuse and intrigue and rarely offend. One Mulberry advertisement, however, from the current series is an exception to the general rule. It has raised a storm of protest to the company because it is a play on the nativity, substituting the red bag in the place of the Christ child as an object of veneration. To Christians, it is blasphemous.

The setting is half-living room, half-stable and the mini-drama opens with a woman reclining by a coffee table in front of a large fireplace.

On either side are the stable animals of tradition. Large candles and soft organ chords establish the religious connection. The woman receives the fittingly wrapped and boxed iconic bag from a man she calls Joe and dissolves into gushing, gasping gratitude as she looks at her bag with rapture.

The parody goes on as three rustics with a sheep or two make their way in to marvel at the bag. They are followed by three ‘kings’ in party hats bearing gifts of wine who join in the adulation and complete the nativity tableau. When Joe, bemused by all the emoting, ventures “...but it is only a bag”, the punchline is pulled from him after a second of stunned silence by a chorus of hollow, knowing laughs. The parody finishes with the camera sweeping upwards to a window through which blazes the Bethlehem star.

It is a ridiculing of the Christmas narrative and not surprisingly Christian groups in the UK have reacted strongly and organised a campaign to persuade the company to drop the advertisement. So far, there has been no protest from the official guardians of minority sensitivities. In contrast to the Dolce and Gabbana fashion launch earlier this year, which promoted the natural family unit and provoked an outcry across the media from their well-heeled patrons, the Mulberry protesters are not finding much of an echo chamber in the media sphere.

Demands for bans and boycotts are understandable and indeed called for. But there is a much better form of protest for those who have an answer to detractors and revilers. The message of the Nativity, Noel, Natale, or Navidad, as Christmas is known in so many languages including our own, where it is called Nollaig, is better defended by Christians engaging with negative comment even, and maybe especially, when it is offensive. Attempting to close off the interesting questions that this quirky, though offensive, piece of marketing is skirting is a missed opportunity. Such an approach also sets a challenge to the fanatics who lack the intellectual fire to fight back with the pen, preferring instead the language of grenades and guns which today take the place of the proverbial sword.

In fact, it does not take a lot of thought to see how this misappropriation of the Christmas message speaks against itself rather than what it parodies. Mulberry is trying to persuade the potential buyer that this bag, puns aside, carries the gift of ecstatic happiness. It is more totem than tote, promising to accompany the bearer to a dreamworld of glamour and status. It is good news to the rich, or the rich in credit, if they can collude in their deluding. This advertisement is asking them to believe that a bag can offer them the joy the Christ child brings and, at the same time, ridicules the very notion of that joy. The irony may well be lost on Mulberry but hardly on the actors, who ham it up like department store elves talking to gullible children.

One does not have to be a believer to see that a bag is a poor symbol for the aspirations of the human heart. But, without belief, what else is there except bags or their equivalent to make us rejoice when Christmas comes around each year? However, the Spirit of Christmas Past, of the First Christmas, and its message of unconditional love continues to whisper across the centuries. It penetrates through the toil and tedium, tinsel and trim, the sentiment and silliness, greed and guilt, and the bustle and boredom of our Christmas Present. There are few among us who do not hear, at some point in the seasonal flurry, the good news promised to the poor and the poor in spirit. In reaching out to others, those closest to us but also the needy, the stranger, and the estranged, we are keeping faith with the message of Christmas even if we don’t acknowledge it. Some 2,000 years on, we are still part of a timeless movement towards what is brightest in the midst of a dark, troubled world, part of a procession of wise and simple, rich and poor, young and old, believers and doubters.

At this time of year, transcendence only needs, in the words of poet Patrick Kavanagh, “a chink” to let in wonder. But we do need to say “bah, humbug”, to the red bag and what it represents for that to happen.