Tasteless Christmas 2013 : ding dongs, wrecking balls and a tequila salut

Ding dongs.

This year there appeared to be fewer distasteful uses of Christmas and traditional Christmas carols in advertising than usual. For one, finally Pampers did not sell any diapers to the tune of "Silent Night." That's a step in the right direction itself.

And while I didn't notice as many offensive items as usual some of the ones I did spot rank right up there with the all-time greats.

Take that picture across the top, it's pulled from a K-Mart commercial for boxer shorts.  This link takes you to the full commercial. I didn't want anyone to have to watch it if you don't want to. 

The premise is, as men in formal coats and ties and K-Mart boxers shake their pelvises they are ringing a bell-like performance of "Jingle Bells," produced from inside their shorts, a reference that isn't too difficult to figure out. What crap. That ranks right up there with Pampers and assures that I will buy nothing from K-Mart in the future, not that I ever did anyway.

Miley Cyrus, add this beauty to your tree

And speaking of twerking, the next on this year's list isn't from an advertisement. As a matter of fact it was a post on Facebook which seemed to be poking fun at the whole idea. Still I bet somewhere in this country there's someone who cut out that image and put Miley Cyrus on a tree swinging from a wrecking ball to add to the decorations. For those unfamiliar with it, she did this virtually nude in the video for her new hit "Wrecking Ball." It was ugly on TV and it's doubly ugly on a Christmas tree.

Only a couple more. To set the record straight it's not so bad using the party songs of Christmas to sell stuff. "Silver Bells" doesn't matter and it's been written here before that I could care less who "Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." But taking a deeply religious song and selling your crap with it, is about as distasteful as it gets. Imagine if somebody did that with a Muslim religious song.

OK, now the last two: Target used "Do You Hear What I Hear," in its commercials on TV which is bad enough but the next one is worse.

Just so loved hearing "What Child Is This? to sell Patron tequila. How do those two relate in any stretch of contrivance? What advertising genius thought a traditional Christian song would tempt anybody to try Mexican liquor, especially when it looks like an attempt to position it as a high-end brand. A friend of mine in advertising told me in that business you can expect to be fired at least once in your career. Hope this fellow got his and the people who approved it and for that matter the folks at Patron who, in their attempt to portray their tequila as the choice of the privileged, tried to sell it with the lowest imaginable class.

So, that's it for the year, except for one thing. There's the idiotic Fox News war on Christmas, a manufactured issue with no significance whatsoever except to spread the Fox message of fear and ignorance to the world. If someone wishes you well what does it matter how it fits into a specific context?

Also there seemed to be a lack of humor that would serve to stop that nonsense. I posted this on Facebook, "The thing that bothers me about this war on Christmas is that it starts earlier every year." I thought that was funny, but you couldn’t tell by the people who commented.  

Lighten up folks and have yourself a merry little Christmas.