Published at 08:20, Friday, 21 December 2012

It will be interesting to see if takings are down in certain supermarkets this year and whether Marks & Spencer suffers a downturn in profits.

M&S are not relying on celebrities this Christmas

Am I the only person delighted to see that M&S and others have ditched its usual celebrity-stuffed Xmas ads?

I can’t stand them, they always seemed to be filmed in some weird Big Brother-style house where they all live wearing awful jumpers and stupid smiles, playing silly tricks on each other and mugging it up for the cameras.

It’s the first time in 10 years that the store has not featured celebs.

It seems to be the one positive result of the economic downturn.

The recession has hit the company hard and it has had more relaunches than a space shuttle.

Re-thinking their Christmas ads and saving a packet on appearance fees is only sensible.

Instead, they’ve copied the idea that was a runaway success for John Lewis last year and gone for a simple, straightforward one featuring a cute kid or seven.

And for the first time in a long while we don’t have an endless parade of celebs laughing and giggling as they push a trolley round a practically deserted supermarket.

No barging, no ramming, no pushing in, no scowling faces or mewling children, stressed out till staff and mile long car park queues.

Does seeing Denise Van Outen, Gary Barlow or Peter Kay in Sainsbury’s or Tesco really make you change which shop you buy your tins of beans and jars of coffee in?

I’d rather have these firms save money on their ads so I can save money at the till (always assuming I can make it there in one piece).

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk