Baby Jesus Says: Buy Now

Discontented parents are complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about Christmas campaigns which have been launched too early. Apparently the advertisements are "misleading", presumably because they claim that Christmas occurs at some point before 25 December; and "socially irresponsible" because, no doubt by some fiendish subliminal machination, they deprive parents of the ability to say "No" or "Wait and see".

Other complainants claim that "the advertising assault represents an over-commercialisation of what is meant to be a religious festival". If it weren't for those damned advertisements, parents and children alike would forget all worldly things and spend the Twelve Days fasting and grovelling for redemption. Or would that be an under-commercialisation of what is meant to be a religious festival?

Speaking of the pieties, fifteen sets of parents have complained about one advertisment for Argos which conveys the blasphemous idea that "Santa may not be real and that it is parents who actually buy children's presents". The parents object to this message on the grounds that the "innocence" of the poor mites is compromised when the lies that adults tell them are exposed. If children are so innocent these days as to believe the claims of advertisers over the assurances of their parents, I can only assume that the parents have spent too little time and effort in cultivating their offspring's trust, and placed too much trust in the television screen to keep the holy innocents quiet.