I get it. Dave LaChappelle’s (one assumes) hideously expensive Christmas ads for Boots The Chemist are very pretty to look at. And the bestockingly lady in the bath peeling sprouts is an amusing and attractive image. And I know that the UK is one of the most sophisticated advertising markets in the world where the subtlety of media / message intertwinings are often lost on the first view.
BUT WHAT HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH BOOTS THE CHEMIST.
I know they don’t like to call themselves Boots The Chemist any more. They are more than just pill-pushers. But, like WH Smiths, their brand extensions never really hold. Gift packs from Boots always seem a bit cheap, branded hairdryers and the like. Perhaps all they can claim as perfect gifts from Boots would be smellies and make-up. (And any fule kno smellies are cheaper in Superdrug). And boys, buying your girlfriend make-up is tantamount to buying them clothes.
So if Boots want us to glam up Christmas, they better give us a good reason. And not just peeling sprouts (which you can’t buy in Boots) with a peeler (which you can’t buy in Boots) in the bath (which you can’t buy in Boots, though if you could get a sprout bubble bath the ad might be justified).