Mariah Carey, singer of one of the world’s most popular modern Christmas songs, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” vocalized herself into a Sephora ad controversy.

On Nov. 1, Carey posted her annual defrosting video at midnight, aiming to bring in the Christmas spirit. The iconic “It’s tiiiimeeee” vocal, normally used as a running joke, may have crafted the most distasteful controversy of the month.

In the Sephora partnership ad, Carey is seen singing the popularly exaggerated line, “It’s time,” but is immediately cut off by an elf on “strike.” The elf expresses the desire to stop supporting Carey entirely, much like our recent efforts to boycott companies that support injustices that we want to speak out against. However, the elves’ desire to strike is completely ignored by Carey, forcing the continuation of “Christmas.”

After viewing this ad, content creators were disgusted by Carey’s alleged ridicule of strikes against capitalist companies. The depiction of the elves’ pleas being completely ignored by Carey, representing the company Sephora, not only produces the false narrative that strikes are ultimately useless but also destroys the communities of people who are passionate about them.

While I do agree that the ad may have concealed a deeper meaning towards the actions of lower and middle class citizens, I cannot help but not be surprised. Carey is a rich woman who accrues money off of us every single year. With such a guaranteed money flow, I do not expect her to concern herself with issues that plague lower income citizens. I cannot say outright that she does not care about boycotts and strikes because I would not know, but the companies that we are actively trying to rebel against can never affect her in the same ways.

Instead, I believe that this ad revealed something far deeper than the fact that Carey may not be privy to strikes against capitalists: it highlights the idea that citizens, with the alleged “power of free speech” are not being listened to or taken seriously by these companies.

Although Carey is a direct consumer of our inability to follow-through with our initiatives, our disbandment is the direct result of companies, such as Sephora, profiting off of our incompetence. Even with the uproar of such a controversial ad, there are people who will continue to support companies that prove, every day, that they do not care about the people they serve.

To be angry at the commercial institutions rather than ourselves is to expect change by sitting idly by; especially when many citizens continue to use the very products that they complain about.