Wednesday 12 November 2014

Christmas Battles and A Childhood Friend

So it is the time of year at the moment when all of the supermarkets and general high street stores release their Christmas adverts to try and get a little boost in sales because its not like they're going to make a tonne of money anyway.

The real advert you are all waiting for is obviously the Coca Cola advert, as soon as you see that huge red lorry moving across your screen.. That's when you say "Oh, its Christmas."

The first one I saw this year, and the one that I actually heard a lot of people talking about was the John Lewis one with Monty the Penguin. It is a story about a penguin who plays with his friend, a child, but gets lonely when he sees couples and romantic things. And then for Christmas, the boy finds the penguin a mate. Turns out, the penguins are cuddly toys and the boy had asked for this for Christmas and I guess the idea behind it is to give gifts that people want. You will most likely seen or heard of this one because it blew up on Twitter against the #montythepenguin. Personally, I like the advert because it is a nice story but I know other people have found it sad when they find out the penguin isn't real. You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860

Saw the M&S one for the first time today, and I won't lie - all M&S adverts just really annoy me. Never been able to put my finger on why but my oh my they do. This one is no different, they started their own hashtag as well being #followthefaries as the advert is all about Christmas fairies pointing at stuff and making it sparkly.. Bah. Then they got all cheesy and said Christmas is better with some magic and sparkle playing off of their own name. Which makes sense. But just no - not for me. Once again, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhuadZHqwwA

I quite like the Tesco's advert. Because on a whole it hasn't chucked in a load of Christmas products and tried to bully you into buying them. It's all about the excitement of things you will only do at Christmas like crawling around in your loft for decorations and setting up the Christmas tree. Plus, the light show at the end is actually real, they set that up and they link you to a full video about that which is pretty awesome on its own. Doing stuff for the community and all that stuff. I must say though, when the guy looks into the box full of baubles.. Thats pretty freaky. Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJYwfEI4Fyo

For me, the best advert has got to be the Sainsbury's one because it is based off of my favourite war time story. I always remember sitting in History at school being told about different battles and wars and what not. At Christmas they would also retell the story of the soldiers who put aside their weapons on Christmas day and met on No Mans Land and played some football. Gave gifts, shared stories and pictures. The advert captures this well and I am pretty sure the giving of the chocolate at the end actually happened as well, and I thought it really embodied the idea of giving at Christmas. Chocolate back then was a luxury, and he gave it a man who might kill him tomorrow. Have a look.


Currently don't know the HTML code to increase the size of the video but.. You can watch it here or follow it to YouTube for a larger display.

Never thought I would make a blog post about Christmas adverts. But it happens every year. I wonder how much money they spend on these adverts and if they actually help. I know when I go Christmas shopping I know what shops I want to go in because they'll have the type of thing I want to buy. The John Lewis advert just makes me want a penguin.

Day 499
Oh my. 500 tomorrow. That is scary to think. In all honesty it is scary that I have been doing this for so long, didn't really think I would ever manage to stick with it.. And.. How many words have I slung on to the internet overall? Well, at least I know it is more than 500 pictures!

Today I wanted to introduce you to a piece of my childhood. He went by many names, mainly Dog or Zog because I was so darn creative. The jacket is from a boot fair and was actually for a Snoopy toy but it fit this one like a glove. You can see he is a bit worse for ware now, holes and stuffing all distributed unevenly but that was just all the loving attention I gave him. I would carry him around in a headlock basically and has undergone many operations to fully attach limbs. He sits on my bookshelf now, haven't the heart to get rid of him. I would never take him out places with me because I always had this nightmare that he would somehow get sucked out of the car and I would never get him back. True story.


Netflix, why you no work? I am so used to having the background noise of something that it feels eerily quiet right now. All it says is that the service is currently not available so.. No SAO for me today. Managed to fit in an episode before it died though.

I was just browsing through Steam looking at different games and their requirements. The games I play are small and not very demanding but keep me more than entertained. I then had a look at the Elder Scrolls Online and of course I was expecting that to be demanding. I was still surprised, even the minimum requirements would be pretty pricey to put together in terms of a gaming rig. And on top of all of that - 80GB storage space! I know most computers come with 1TB these days but that is nearly a tenth of it gone on one thing. That and the operating system is a tenth gone. Crazy.

Thanks peeps, as always, blog you later.

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