I’m a sucker for Christmas. Not in any kind of profound Christian sense, but in a way that is base, commercial and comfortingly smooth-brained. Hook the fairy lights to my veins; festoon my face with baubles. For 40-odd days each year, I am all too happy to genuflect at the altar of tat. But even a raging Santaphile like myself has to draw the line somewhere – and by that, I mean Christmas adverts.
Last week, high-street retailer Marks & Spencer caused a ruckus when it shared an outtake from its new Christmas advert depicting multi-coloured hats being burnt in a fireplace. In what M&S said was a completely inadvertent piece of iconography, the hats bore the colours of the Palestinian flag. It’s not the first piece of festive advertising to kick up a storm, of course. Last year, a Waitrose advert had to be edited after skin cancer charity Melanoma UK complained that it glorified sun tans. Greggsheads will, of course, recall the bakery chain’s infamous “sausage roll Christ” ad of 2017; in 2012, Asda were forced to apologise after an advert proselytising the “mums behind every great Christmas” was criticised for ramming gender norms down everyone’s stockings. Christmas adverts are a minefield of potential scandals. But that’s not the only reason they need to stop.
