Most accounts of the famous Christmas Truce neatly avoid mentioning that when German troops opposite the French lines came out of their trenches to celebrate, the French machine gunned them down.
I find this ad offensive on several levels. First is the use of war to advertise a product. I don't care if the proceeds are going to a charity. If they used the Nagasaki bomb as the background to a commercial product advert the proceeds of which would go to cancer research, would you accept it?
Second, the obvious sanitisation of war. Impeccably clean young men with neatly laundered uniforms and smooth shaves shaking hands on ground without a shell hole in sight, instead of the reality of mud and snow everywhere, rats eating the dead, and the living being covered with lice so familiar they had names. This is all part of the ongoing attempt to romanticize WWI, probably the most horrible war ever in terms of pure human suffering (if you leave out the Eastern Front in WWII).
Third, the implied falsification of history. The truce didn't get much sharing done. The next day they were busy killing each other as usual. The officers saw to that.
By the way, a football game really occurred, between the "Saxons" and "Anglo-Saxons" (national names for the teams being scrupulously avoided). I think the Saxons won.
http://youtu.be/6Ciq0ezZv1I
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dec9Jb_Ac4
ReplyDeleteA collection of Goodies:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/BqfZUX5svCg
http://youtu.be/xc8l6X89GlU
http://youtu.be/NDU4Z_BBkTA
http://youtu.be/dsqC6HRS8Lc
http://youtu.be/mS7aPE_YbVM
http://youtu.be/OvF233fW4cI
Thanks Ding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM
ReplyDeleteat the last link Whooli posted:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzfeed.com/jobarrow/sainsburys-plan-to-demolish-a-rugby-stadium-built-in-memory#.bbm3rm4a
Comment on Youtube on said video:
ReplyDeleteMost accounts of the famous Christmas Truce neatly avoid mentioning that when German troops opposite the French lines came out of their trenches to celebrate, the French machine gunned them down.
I find this ad offensive on several levels. First is the use of war to advertise a product. I don't care if the proceeds are going to a charity. If they used the Nagasaki bomb as the background to a commercial product advert the proceeds of which would go to cancer research, would you accept it?
Second, the obvious sanitisation of war. Impeccably clean young men with neatly laundered uniforms and smooth shaves shaking hands on ground without a shell hole in sight, instead of the reality of mud and snow everywhere, rats eating the dead, and the living being covered with lice so familiar they had names. This is all part of the ongoing attempt to romanticize WWI, probably the most horrible war ever in terms of pure human suffering (if you leave out the Eastern Front in WWII).
Third, the implied falsification of history. The truce didn't get much sharing done. The next day they were busy killing each other as usual. The officers saw to that.
By the way, a football game really occurred, between the "Saxons" and "Anglo-Saxons" (national names for the teams being scrupulously avoided). I think the Saxons won.