Wake Me Up In A Month

We're now into that post-US Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas period of advertising that I could mostly do without, truth be told. Not that I much like commercials at the best of times, but this time of the year just makes a bad situation that much worse.

Here are the archetype ads that always seem to show up, earlier and earlier each year:

• the husband who finally shows his undeniable love for the wife by buying her a diamond (and presumably found one for his girlfriend, too)
• the person (usually, but not always, a child) who's completely disappointed with what they got for Christmas until that one special gift turns their whole year around
• conversely, the lout who doesn't get that one special gift and acts like they were just diagnosed with cancer
• the person who gets a new car for Christmas (does anyone out there really give cars as Christmas presents?)
• the piece-of-crap flashy toy that looks like the most exciting thing to come along since ice cream but actually will break the second time a kid uses it... if there even is a second time!
• the "nothing says Christmas like a week of whiny kids misbehaving at Disneyworld" ad
• the many, many incredibly lame attempts to transform products no one in their right mind would associate with Christmas into " great holiday gift suggestions"... I'm waiting for the always-ridiculous Viagra folks to get into the act this year!

To all of them, I say: "Bah, humbuggery!"