Time for an Epipen methinks:
Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit stories have enthralled generations of children with their tales of warm camaraderie and gentle mischief.
But a new film adaptation of the much-loved classic has prompted a furious backlash and calls for it to be withdrawn from cinemas because the protagonist and his furry friends deliberately pelt an allergic man with blackberries.
Allergy UK said the film, due to be released in the UK next month, “mocks” allergy sufferers and trivialises a life threatening condition.
Carla Jones, the charity’s CEO, said: “Anaphylaxis can and does kill. To include a scene in a children’s film that includes a serious allergic reaction and not to do it responsibly is unacceptable, as is bullying.
“Mocking allergic disease shows a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of food allergy and trivialises the challenges faced by those who live with this condition, particularly parents who live in fear of their child suffering a life threatening reaction.”
No such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell the name right, eh? Wonder how much the film’s producers paid for this?
I have never been pelted with blackberries, housebricks were the weapon of choice for jealous kids down my street
To be fair, whoever ramrodded this scene into a kids film based on Beatrix Potter(supposedly) was an idiot, and whichever senior person signed off on it was an idiot of an even higher order.
Someone needs to tell these people to F**K off. A shame these producers did not.
@SMFS – people should also stop reading the Terriblegraph; it’s full of shit like this.
“She said they expected to see a “significant response” from allergy sufferers, adding: “We will be communicating with the production company about the film’s withdrawal.””
I suspect the number of anaphylaxis sufferers who want to see this film isn’t enough to ruin its chances at the box office if they all fail to buy a ticket.
Wonder what the Ceo’s wages are?
Hundred grand a year? For talking shite?
And all of us working for nothing.
Allergy UK claims 21 million people “suffer from allergic disease”. Yeah, right….
“Allergy UK claims 21 million people “suffer from allergic disease”. Yeah, right….”
As always with these claims they’ve been free and easy with the meanings. Allergies are tested on a scale of 0 to 6 with 6 being epipen level and 1 being barely noticeable.
By including everyone with a score of 1 I can see them getting to 21 million, but it doesn’t tell us a great deal, other than some people get a few snuffles in spring.
Wasn’t there a ghastly “what do you call a woman turning a bowl out of clay on a wheel while balancing three pints of ale on her head” ‘joke’ when I was a kid?
I was allergic to that kind of thing …
I would call this the most middle class crisis ever but I’d be lying.
Blackberries?! That’s one mighy specific allergy.
‘deliberately pelt an allergic man with blackberries’
Was it a real allergic man, or a stunt double?
BLACKberries ?!?! WTF ???
SubsaharanAfricanberries !!!
‘furious backlash and calls for it to be withdrawn’
I’m sure. Two guys living in their mothers’ basements complained.
As an anaphylaxis sufferer I won’t be seeing it at the box office anyway.
People die from it. By accident or in at least a couple of cases, on purpose.
Yes, allergy does have a wide variety of impacts from being sensitive to it – a lactose sensitivity can mean more than a couple of cups of tea worth of milk a day leads to side effects. Up to ‘use this epipen now you have 3 minutes to live’.
Lots of those who develop more severe reactions start out merely sensitive.
A lots of parents would live in considerably less fear if pressure groups didn’t keep winding them up in to a state of extreme anxiety about something that is, in many cases, a figment of the parental imagination (or that of Mumsnet) or, in those cases where there is a real allergy, nowhere near the severity of the relative few who have genuine life threatening or altering conditions.
I have a serious, although below anaphylactic, specific allergy. It has required three or four slight lifestyle choices that most people don’t notice.
As someone who spent a couple of decades working for or with nonprofits, I can safely say that what Allergy UK is doing is known as “fundraising”.
I’m allergic to iPhones but nobody cares about iPhobes like me – it’s always the © Blackberry crowd demanding special treatment.
Mobs of proletarians armed with blackberries will roam our urban wastelands (devastated by Brexit) unless this film is destroyed and that charity given lots of public money.
SE – there are parents whose first experience of allergic reaction went badly with their child.
Understandably they don’t want to take risks. Or have the allergy become worse.
Depends on the individual of course, some with allergies do develop a partial or full immunity.
I was at one point allergic to a particular nightshade, one taste would make me quite ill. Over time and with the substance being in a LOT of stuff I’m exposed to the allergy has degenerated to a sensitivity and with a tolerance. Foods that would hospitalise me in 1970s I can have as part of meals in 2010s. I now use that substance to create my own sauces.
Of course, when. Beatrix Potter was writing, allergies hadn’t been invented. So this is wrong on so many levels….
You’d think Allergy UK would welcome this heightening of awareness of the danger of allergies. Showing in a graphic way on the big screen how dangerous they can be. They should have paid for this ‘product placement’ themselves.
Indeed they are. But what %age of the total worried by the propaganda are they?
@Martin
“I was at one point allergic to a particular nightshade, one taste would make me quite ill.”
Tip: paint may be a liquid, but is not a drink
HTH
Pcar: nightshades include, inter alia, potatoes, tomatoes, chilis, aubergines, petunias and tobacco.