Littlewoods Rant/Review What happens when a company loses all credibility? The answer is hate, I'm no fan of hate- I mean- I've followed "official Mandella" on twitter, but when I saw this advert I couldn't help but throw myself in with the haters. Drawn like moths to the metaphorical lamp, that is littlewoods. Welcome to the world of guilt trips and materialism. The 40 seconds that destroyed Christmas start on a black screen. A magical trill draws you into what looks like a stage, the curtains open. But before you can guess at the grand spectacle ahead- boom- the screen is filled with a boy wearing a disgusting black spider costume. Like something fell out of a children's horror story and rolled around in tar and mascara. In another attempt to be cute the boy sweetly sings "who put an Xbox under the tree" and the horror begins. The children on stage then sing in their sweet voices "who bought [expensive gift] for [family member]" and after each verse the camera cuts to what must be that family member, an overly humble and surprised look forced across their faces. And who did buy those gifts? Santa of course, where's the Christmas spirit? Well they do give you the answer. "My mother" After this the song breaks down into heave beats as a few "big boys" swagger on in red hoodies, they rap about what amazing presents their mum bought for people in their family, pretty handy when all of them rhyme with "Ben" honestly the song has less creativity than a gun (and about the same killing power) Wouldn't it be easy if adverts just told you their message instead of acting it out. Littlewoods' message is obvious enough: "Buy your children expensive gifts from this website because Santa is dead to them now, and littlewoods is the only way to prove you love your child" Soon, the advert reaches a climax, all the children get on stage, singing while clutching their gifts as if they were wounded babies. Finally the curtain closes, but before the screen goes black again, a small girl peers through the curtains, she is heavily made up to look like a fairy- yet is wearing a vikin helmet- and sings the answer to the "who bought" questions, as if you haven't had the answer enough already. "My lovely, lovely mother!" I was shocked at this advert, not because of its message but by why it did to my brother. Immediately after he saw it, he asked for an Xbox, despite the fact he knows we can't afford one for him. It made me sad that the advert actually worked. One word to sum up the advert: Materialistic Thank you for reading my rant this was made mainly for my English exam but I have re-written it for opuss, I hope you enjoyed it. «Alex»