Picture from Net Imperitive

Do you remember when one of the exciting things about Christmas was the telly? The four channels (I'm going back a bit) used to pull out all the stops to try and keep your attention and the festive editions of the Radio Times and TV Times arriving into your house meant a frenzy of circling the things you wanted to watch and record? Obviously you did the circling in the TV Times because you kept a collection of, what? Oh, just me for that one then. Anyway, is it because Christmas and seasonal television was and still is aimed primarily at children that it seemed so much better back then? Decent family entertainment is thin on the ground these days, and not just at Christmas, and the world has gone so unbelievably stupid that we no longer fanfare the programmes but turn our attention to the adverts instead. One of the main events of the year is when the big guns bring out their advertisements, and this year they have done it far too early. Not only that, but in a strange move (although probably a lot cheaper) they have all been showcased on YouTube instead of the television. As I said, this is probably a far more cost effective move than paying out for a prime time slot during Coronation Street or X-Factor and of course it caters for the fact that we don't tend to watch television at the same time anymore. John Lewis was of course the first out of the traps, clever enough to create their own hashtag because that's how the kids communicate nowadays. This was something that we have both looked forward to and we settled down in front of the laptop (how very modern) for a session of festive commercials. 

Of course John Lewis are the masters of the heart warming, tear inducing fuzzy feeling all over Christmas adverts. Who could forget the little boy with a penguin that was actually a cuddly toy or the snowman who travelled through town to buy a present for his snow wife/girlfriend? If you really wanted to have the tears rolling down your face then all you need is the young lad who waits impatiently for Christmas morning like all children do, except (spoiler alert) he wasn't interested in his own present but wanted to present his gift to his parents. This year I can see what they are trying to say, it's just a shame that they haven't said it very well. I was looking forward to another emotionally charged mini-masterpiece yet I don't know what went wrong. The intention is there of course, they are raising awareness (in conjunction with Help the Aged) of the plight of those who will be alone at Christmas. Why this old man is on the moon we can only speculate on, although out of all the people on earth he could communicate with he chooses a young girl so he could have been drummed out of town. Despite their obvious good intentions this is the year that John Lewis lost it as far as their Christmas crown is concerned. 

It is actually a pretty piss-poor year all round for Christmas adverts we found out from our trip through YouTube. Boots have basically just gone for a run through the stuff they are selling without even trying to think of a story, which considering the last two years is disappointing. Maybe that's the problem across the board, they just can't do any better thus out of frustration they turn out something that people will pretend to enjoy just because they have to, last year's campaigns acting as each store's own version of One Leg Too Few. Marks and Spencer haven't done any better having spent a couple of years filling the void left by Woolworths by filling their adverts with a big budget celebrity cast. It still annoys me how Shop Direct refused to bring back the Christmas adverts when they bought the Woolworths name to cash in on our feelings for the place. 

Inevitably our Youtube trip through Christmas advertising ended up at the legendary Woolworths adverts, I don't know why ITV just don't play them anyway. Who would be the modern day equivalent of a line up like this?

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