Metropol

james2001 wrote:I don't know whether to laugh or cry at Sainsbury's using I Belive In Father Christmas in their Christmas advert, did they not even make any attempts to listen to the lyrics beforehand? A song that describes the nativity as a "fairy story", and is a protest against the commercialisation of Christmas is hardly appropriate for a Christmas advert.

Most of that goes over people's heads. Not unlike [what used to be the case with] Fairytale of New York [until everyone started going on about it boringly every bloody Christmas].

It's a nice Christmas'y tune regardless of the lyrics.

james2001 wrote:I don't know whether to laugh or cry at Sainsbury's using I Belive In Father Christmas in their Christmas advert, did they not even make any attempts to listen to the lyrics beforehand? A song that describes the nativity as a "fairy story", and is a protest against the commercialisation of Christmas is hardly appropriate for a Christmas advert.

You're wrong cdd...er...james2001. Firstly, the Nativity of Jesus IS a fairy story, to claim otherwise is foolish or naiive. Secondly, the lyrics were written not by Lake, but by Peter Sinfield (also of King Crimson) who said that he wrote them with the loss of childhood innocence in mind. As such, I come to a different conclusion : I find the song, which although not purposely linked with Chrimbo has, through its inclusion on compilation albums etc, become an indelible bittersweet cantata in the Saturnalia soundtrack, quite a fitting counterpoint to the advert's imagery - the excited children on screen think their presents have come from Santa, whereas those in the know (i.e. those targeted by the advert - parents and grownups) are aware of what goes into making Christmas a magical time for our little ones. Especially in today's iPad-enabling-information-dominated war-scarred world, we need to try even harder to keep miracles miracles. The message of the Greg Lake song is not one of pessimism, but of optimism. The song reminds us that our children are growing up too fast, and that we must make the moments of wonder count even more than before. I think, somewhere, some marketing/advertising guru said as much to Sainsbury's.

Either that, or the royalties were quite cheap and the main refrain lyric suited the advert for all of the 30 seconds it featured.

Alexia wrote:

james2001 wrote:I don't know whether to laugh or cry at Sainsbury's using I Belive In Father Christmas in their Christmas advert, did they not even make any attempts to listen to the lyrics beforehand? A song that describes the nativity as a "fairy story", and is a protest against the commercialisation of Christmas is hardly appropriate for a Christmas advert.

You're wrong cdd...er...james2001. Firstly, the Nativity of Jesus IS a fairy story, to claim otherwise is foolish or naiive. Secondly, the lyrics were written not by Lake, but by Peter Sinfield (also of King Crimson) who said that he wrote them with the loss of childhood innocence in mind. As such, I come to a different conclusion : I find the song, which although not purposely linked with Chrimbo has, through its inclusion on compilation albums etc, become an indelible bittersweet cantata in the Saturnalia soundtrack, quite a fitting counterpoint to the advert's imagery - the excited children on screen think their presents have come from Santa, whereas those in the know (i.e. those targeted by the advert - parents and grownups) are aware of what goes into making Christmas a magical time for our little ones. Especially in today's iPad-enabling-information-dominated war-scarred world, we need to try even harder to keep miracles miracles. The message of the Greg Lake song is not one of pessimism, but of optimism. The song reminds us that our children are growing up too fast, and that we must make the moments of wonder count even more than before. I think, somewhere, some marketing/advertising guru said as much to Sainsbury's.

Either that, or the royalties were quite cheap and the main refrain lyric suited the advert for all of the 30 seconds it featured.

You're a cretin.

Thankyou. You're a twerp.

Stop the Cavalry also wasn't supposed to be a Christmas song but a protest song, but became associated with it because of the "wish I was at home for Christmas" lyric.

Tesco have launched yet another new bakery concept in their Kensington store. The retail part of Euphorium (as opposed to the cafe) has been replaced by what is presumably just a new Tesco brand called something like The Bakery Revolution (that might be completely wrong, I've forgotten already). Very nice and unusual shelving, I think it was all fresh stuff with the brand all over it, big brand loaves and other bready things weren't included, much like it was with Euphorium.

The most unusual part was one section which at first looked like a reduced to clear area but on closer inspection it's an area where the price increases or decreases depending on the time of the day you buy them and they were making a big deal about it on the shelf-ends and packaging. So some buns were 75p if you bought them before 4pm and a bit more expensive afterwards. Presumably this is to try and get people in during quieter parts of the day and mask the unattractive reduced to clear scrum.

Has anyone else's Tesco had this ridiculous feature added?

Alexia wrote:You're wrong cdd...er...james2001 [blah blah blah]

Um, really?

Don't let the fact that meme went out of date 2 years ago, and I post on here infrequently at best, prevent you from dragging that up...

Pete wrote:Has anyone else's Tesco had this ridiculous feature added?

I've not seen that - I far prefer Sony's stunt at the Oxo Tower.

I've also not seen any of Christmassy paper hats being added to Tesco store signs yet this year. Have I just been at the wrong stores or are they not doing it this year?

thegeek wrote:I've also not seen any of Christmassy paper hats being added to Tesco store signs yet this year. Have I just been at the wrong stores or are they not doing it this year?

The store in that photo (Dundee Kingsway Extra) now has the hat in place of the xbox logo