Brand Catalyst’s Blog

Every year we hear the complaint that Christmas is becoming overly commercialised, the celebration of the birth of Jesus barely getting a look in.

This is a fact that most of us have become accustomed to, but what has struck me this year is the commercialisation of anti-Christian messages in connection to Christmas.

Last week standing on the platform at Holborn tube I saw a poster featuring a demonic monster that would have scared the pants off my six year old, let alone me. This poster was advertising a computer game called Dark Messiah, evidently a theme of evil battling evil, the release being timed to hit the Christmas run-up.

Sitting in the cinema on Saturday night waiting to see ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ - incidentally a side splittingly funny film - we were treated to a trailer for a particularly unpleasant looking ’slasher’ horror film entitled ‘Black Christmas’. Again, interesting seasonal timing.

In these times when we are all meant to be sensitive to the religious beliefs of others it seems extraordinary that such provocative marketing is considered acceptable.