The date today is November 15th 2013
You see what it says there? November. We are barely two weeks into November. Bonfire Night is over and Remembrance Sunday has only recently been and gone. So what's the next big event? Christmas, but that's aaaaages away so there's no point thinking about it yet, right?
How I wish this was the case. Unfortunately, pretty much 50% (probably more!) of adverts on TV right now are Christmas ads. No matter what channel you switch to, you just can't escape them. This hasn't just started today either, these ads reared their heads a couple of weeks ago. Christmas Day is 40 days away, yet the build up is already in motion? One question: Why? Why so early?
I honestly can't remember the kick-off to Christmas ever being as early as it is this year. Halloween had barely finished before the first Christmas ads surfaced. There's been zero breathing space between events as companies seem rather obsessively desperate to flaunt their own personal Christmas spirit ASAP. I'm aware that all these companies are trying to entice people to buy their stuff, that's not the issue here. The issue is that they're on too damn EARLY! After just two weeks, I and others are already thoroughly sick of them, so God knows what the rage-o-meter is going to be like by the time Christmas actually arrives!
This premature Christmas hype isn't just exclusive to TV ads though. Recently, I visited a garden centre and as I walked through the doors I was greeted by a strong smell of Christmas spices, tinsel and decorations strung all over the place, trees galore with flashing lights and Christmas karaoke-type songs being continually blasted throughout the place. Last week, I visited my town centre and it was also strewn with huge silver decorations, lights and two huge silver reindeer figures slap bang in the middle of the shopping area. I suppose I should've been looking around in awe with cries of "Ooo! Christmas! Yay!" but I wasn't. Instead, I was just thinking "Why is all this out now? We've barely hit November". By generating the festive feeling so early, they've actually ended up killing it (for me, anyway). I firmly believe that anything Christmas related should begin on December 1st, possibly a few days earlier, but nowhere near as early as the end of October/start of November - there's just no need for it.
Moving back to the ads.....
I hate adverts at the best of times, I really do. They annoy the hell out of me. They all just seem to be plain irritating drivel. The Christmas adverts this year, are no different* and that's pretty much down to the awful cover versions a lot of them have opted for. Here is a brief look at just some of what's on offer this year:
*I'd like to make an exception for the Boots advert purely for them using the song 'Smalltown Boy'. It has absolutely no connection to Christmas at all, but it's a great song and I'm always up for listening to it!
LIDL
I hate, hate, HATE this advert with a fiery passion. Why? Solely down to the sickening, mawkish, quivery, baby vocals in this cover version of One Direction's 'Little Things'. I loathe 1D and that song anyway, but this particular cover version makes me want to kill. Unfortunately, simpering covers like this seem to be all the rage in adverts now. I don't know whether there's supposed to be some sort of sweet charm to them, but if that's the intention then it's failed spectacularly. All stuff like this does is raise blood pressure.
Iceland
Iceland's general ads used to be grim viewing due to the trashy, Z-list Kerry Katona who fronted them. Now though, Iceland seem to be trying to shed the Chav-tastic image with something more upmarket. They've drafted in Canadian crooner Michale Bublé for their new ads. The one above features his version of 'Jingle Bells' - that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I hate it. The jazzing up of it just makes me cringe and it's on way too much to ignore. Not as rage-inducing as the LIDL ad, but it's irritating enough.
TK MAXX
This advert is just weird.The slo-mo close-ups of everyone's faces is kind of freaky. I always find myself laughing at this ad in a "WTH?" way. It's better to just not look at the advert and instead just concentrate on the instrumental of Yazoo's 'Only You' in the background!
John Lewis
The John Lewis Christmas advert seems to have become a sort of tradition. It was trending on Twitter a week or so ago and a forum I visit had a long thread about it. Reading through the various comments, the general feeling seemed to be that it was beautiful, tugged at the heartstrings and even made people shed a tear. Obviously I was intrigued and was hoping to catch it ASAP. I finally did and it was such an anti-climax. The animation is very good (it has an 'Animals Of Farthing Wood'/Watership Down' vibe to it) but, once again, it's the damn song that accompanies it - Lily Allen's cover of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know'. I'm not a fan of Keane, but Allen's cover is just terrible; her vocals on her own songs are grating enough! As much as everyone seems to be falling over themselves to say how amazing this ad is, I don't think it's a patch on last year's effort:
Now that ad I really loved
As I type, the Coco-Cola advert has just graced my TV screen for the umpteenth time. The usual cry of "You know it's Christmas when the Coke advert comes on" seems rather redundant now - the Coke ad came on a few days ago and we're nowhere near Christmas.
Bah Humbug!
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