Out go Julia Sawalha and Richard E.Grant’s PA and Sleb. A relatively successful and memorable campaign which nevertheless somehow seemed to place the emphasis on all that was cheap about the catalogue store. But in its place is one of the most ridiculous Christmas ads of the year. In comes one of those sappy Christmas ads which are so at odds with the reality of shopping at Argos that it comes across much more like an insult. Watch it here and come back, I’ll be waiting. more »
Pete Baran in Blog 7 /FT • 6 Comments
Over the last couple of weeks I have become unaccountably interested in baby development. This interest is liable to lead the unwary into a world of paranoia and guilt (particularly when accompanied by a vested – and babygro’ed – interest) and especially so if one reads the newspapers.
One of the first things you learn as a parent is that everyone has an opinion on what kids should do, and newspapers are no exception. Two broad schools of thought compete. The Mail view is that kids are innocent angels perpetually at risk from hordes of rampaging killyjoys, fiddlers and feckless parents (until they reach 10 or so, when they become verminous crime-breeding weasels). The Guardian perspective is that a child is born with soundly liberal views which they then gradually lose thanks to the depredations of The Man and his hypermediated and hypersexualised society.
So it was in the Guardian that I first encountered the SHOCK HORROR statistic (being read out on GMTV by Rowan Williams AS I TYPE!) that 70% of three-year-olds can recognise McDonalds whereas only 50% know their own surname more »
Tom in FT /Proven By Science • 11 Comments