Jingle bells

It's a lovely day here. The sky is picture perfect blue, there are little clouds floating along like Little Bo Peep's sheep. Why I even saw a bit of dandelion fluff float by my window. And I'm thinking about Christmas. I know, I know there's more than 4 months to go for the second most important day in the calendar celebrating God (the first is the Annual MGR birthday celebrations across the South).

So why am I thinking of Christmas? My work demands it of me. As an advertising copywriter I've been forced to immerse myself in premature yuletide joy and come up with lines like

"Park! The Herald Angels Sing."
10,000 free parking spaces at The ...........

Sigh. Sigh. And sigh again. I don't know what I feel worse about - insulting the Herald Angels or insulting the people who are going to read this poster.

It could be worse I tell myself. I remember a time when I used to do ads for a chain of household appliance stores. 'Hot deals for a cool summer' was a favourite.

We all do it in advertising. Write lines we hate. Skip channels when embarassing tv commercials we had a hand in are aired. It happens to everyone in the industry. Like doctors who forget scalpels inside their patients. Kind of.

So what can one do? I could insist my better lines be accepted (and I assure you there are better lines) I could take a year off and find inner peace. Or I could make myself some coffee and wait for Valentines Day, Easter and Hanukkah.

Coffee here I come.

(And Herald Angels, in some of the words of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol 1 'If you're feeling sore about this when you're older, I'll be waiting'.)