Well this time Big W has gone and done it. Their new Christmas ad featuring the guy from Modern Family has given me the irrits and I’ve jumped on to my high horse!

I couldn’t find a copy of the ad on the interwebs (I didn’t look too hard though), but the general gist is the guy (whose name escapes me) is dancing around singing about how much you can buy for a super cheap price for Christmas all to ‘Walking In A Winter Wonderland’. The ‘kerching’ being sung at the end adds a super classy note.

Previously I’ve got hot under the collar about Kmart and it’s dubious ethical standards. This time Big W gets my spray!

What has got me so wound up this time, is this whole idea that we should be buying lots of things for our friends and family at Christmas regardless of whether they want or need it, to show them that we love them. And because it is cheap, we can get more. Leaving aside all the ethical issues of buying super cheap clothing and toys (which I don’t have all the answers too), the ad overtly sells to the idea that Christmas is about buying heaps of stuff, and a smart person can buy heaps of stuff, and ‘save’ money.

Set all this to a well loved Christmas song, and it is pretty persuasive stuff; but I refuse to buy it!

Here is a novel idea: This Christmas let’s save money by not buying things that are neither wanted or needed. Let’s not fall into the trap of buying stuff just because it is cheap. Let’s buy things of quality that might cost a little more initially, but don’t break in 10 minutes, and so save us money in the long run! Let’s not fall for the idea that more is better, or that how much we love our kids is measured by how much plastic crap we give them!

Above all, let’s teach our kids all this too!