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Monday 23 November 2015

The DCM, who sell cinema advertisements, have a rule that says that they won't accept religious or political advertisements. I'd guess that this is because they don't want to piss off their customers. If you're going to the cinema to see a good movie, you don't want to by politicked to or prayed at  as a prelude.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is upset. The Church of England says "If they want to be consistent on not carrying any ads that have any connection with religious belief, I'd like them to cancel all ads liked to Christmas as a Christian festival. If they'd like to apply it consistently, ban every ad that mentions Christmas."

Well, not quite. You have to go back to the true meaning of Christmas, which isnt actually about Jesus Christ; the Christians borrowed the date to represent a birth that actually happened in a completely different month.

December 21 or 22, is the shortest day of the year, which means that from then on, the days start getting longer, which is great. And there's a festival to celebrate that, called Yule.

The Romans also had a festival at that time, in honour of the god Saturn. They called it Saturnalia.

In both cases (and I'd guess in numerous other religion's festivals at that time of year), the thing to do was feast, and give gifts. And we do the same - the True Meaning of Christmas, before it got hijacked by the Christians, was:

1) Eat too much.
2) Drink too much.
3) Presents all round.

Pretty much every Christmas advertisement I've ever seen (mostly on television, but also print), emphasises those three principles, and they don't refer to any religious stuff. Why should they? They want you to buy food, buy booze, and buy presents. Some people call this "the commercialisation of Christmas", but it's actually a return to the real meaning of Christmas.

Anyway. The Archbishop of Canterbury is upset. And since it's the season of goodwill to all men (all Archbishops are men), I'd like to make him an offer. I don't usually accept advertisements on this blog, but I'm willing to make an exception. For the rest of this year, I'll accept religious advertisements (from all religions, of course, one mustn't show favouritism). Email me if you want to know my rates.


4 comments:

  1. Spoken like a true atheist Doc !

    Do you do pay per click rates?

    Thank you for re-iterating the true meaning of Christmas.

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  2. Herts Police have been Tweeting today (poster via ActionFraud) on the theme of Don't Get Conned this Christmas. (though they didn't mention buying ad. space from dodgy bloggers)
    What they do suggest: "Before buying on auction sites always check whether the seller or buyer is genuine" - though no advice how.
    And: "Never transfer money to someone you don't know" - covers 99.999% of eBay payments.
    I don't know why they bother.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe I should do a blog post on "How to buy from auction sites"

    ReplyDelete