To hate all the Xmas foody banquet ads when so many cant afford a decent meal?

[BeckerLleytonNever]

...And will be queing at the food banks as usual?

Not wanting to poo pooh anyones enjoyment, but at a time when so many people have barely enough to eat these days cos of this fucking government and their cuts to the disabled and vulnerable, I wish some ads would be a bit more down to earthy, and not just the Sally army ones.

Same with warm cosy houses with log fires and toasty heating when some people (including us) have to resort to being in one room all winter just to have a bit of warmth in one room as tthey cant afford to heat the whole house?

awaiting either support or a flaming...............

I see your point , OP , and agree with it up to a point.
I've really cut down and simplified my christmas over the last few years. Dinner is a normal roast served in normal size portions. No need for mountains of food , our stomachs don't suddenly double in size just because it's December 25th. A few treats are nice, no need to overdo it. I find christmas much less stressful as a result.
I don't begrudge other people though, and quite honestly I just avoid adverts. They're annoying all year round.

YABU.

Adverts are there to entice, lots I would like and lots I wouldn't. That doesn't mean they should stop advertising as not everyone can afford things, it's part of life. Sometimes wanting something can spur people on to take on extra house, do overtime etc.

I love Christmas as it was truly rubbish growing up and now I can plan and do my own and it's lovely. There's nothing I wouldn't give to have certain people with me for it so should I ban adverts that have whole families in them? Of course not.

Bring back a simpler christmas!

What is stopping you apart from keeping up with the Jones's?

I get where you're coming from op. I don't like the commercialisation of Christmas and the ads are so full of food that no family could eat in a sitting.

Hope life does get better for you soon.

I can't walk without a walking frame - WIBU to not want to see able-bodied people prancing about in the ads? Yes of course I would be - and OP, there's nothing wrong with chicken for Christmas lunch - much nicer than turkey IMO.

Whatever you do at Christmas, hope you enjoy your day.

Sorry but I agree with op , and I regard myself as fortunate. I think we forget there are people less fortunate than ourselves, and the true message of Christmas is to remember that.
I'm no Saint or particularly religious but Christmas is actually a christian festival (birth of christ), it's not all about spending 7 million quid filming a dog on a trampoline.
I love Christmas myself but feel it should be more focused on spending time with friends and family and trying to think of others , not lining the pockets of supermarket bosses and department stores

I believe it was a pagan festival, adopted by the christians, that is now being adapted for a secular generation.

Christmas is what you make it though.

We do a 12 days of Christmas where we do 12 charitable acts and it's a big part of our Christmas.

We work hard. We shop for months (crackers cards etc bought in the January sales)

You see the ads as feast and gluttony we see them as one day when you get what you want rather than what you need. Isn't it supposed to be aspirational?

I get you OP. I hate how commercialised Christmas is and how we all blindly buy into it.

I also really agree with your posts Magic. I think Christmas is a really bad time of year for a great many people and the hard sell by MSM, which does start earlier each year (!) doesn't help.

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than have a Christmas dinner like the adverts! It's just a Sunday roast with crackers and paper hats - if I wanted a Chinese for Christmas dinner I would, if I wanted to stay in PJS and eat nothing but chocolate on Christmas Day - who cares? Live your life according to your own values not the values dictated to you by a poncy marketing team who I can guarantee ain't having a Christmas Day like that either

We don't watch ads in our house (didn't have an aerial and never put one in; we watch Netflix and Youtube, which is bad enough for ads but at least we can skip most after 5 seconds). Was talking the other day with someone who grew up just after the war about how much happier people were before images of affluent lifestyles were constantly displayed to you on billboards/tv/in magazines. I think it makes people feel crap which of course is what it's supposed to. Unless of course you buy whatever they want you to.
Was talking to someone else about his work funding a charity trip to somewhere in Africa where they send staff to help build and maintain schools. He was talking about how happy the kids are despite having so little. Then coming home and seeing kids whining about wanting more, newer, more expensive stuff. It's a disease, created by advertisers and manufacturers. You can always switch the tv off when the ads come on though - it's a start

Yes, post-world war was lovely, unless you were homosexual, or Catholic and pregnant as my mother was. and then it was shit. Really shit.

There's no golden sunlit uplands, they don't exist. They never did.

I hate the 'poor children' shtick. Of course Africans don't want what we have. Why would they?

Ridiculous.

YABU

Of course the ads are over the top, they are adverts. Who would want to buy a product shown in a Dickensian house? The company would get flamed for being disrespectful for a start.
People were happier after the war, they survived hell! Saying that life was easier in any way is utterly ridiculous. It was different.

Yes that was my point really. And being happy about surviving wasn't the context it was said in; more about being happy with having very little because everyone you knew was in the same situation, and you didn't constantly see adverts for luxurious items and food etc so you were happy to have what was within reach without getting into debt and so on. I suppose I'm trying to say, adverts are a terrible thing and being acquisitive makes you miserable. But feel free to pick apart my comments I'm off to bed!

It's all relative OP - for example, when I was a kid we only got chocolate at Xmas and Easter and pop strictly Xmas only (from the Corona man).
i'd bet that your DC get those things every week (if not every day)?

yes, we got a turkey dinner (which Mum bought by weekly payments to the butcher) but it was the toys, sweets and pop that were extraordinary and made Xmas, well, Xmas!

So much is now everyday taken-for-granted that the bar is raised that much higher to make a Xmas "special" IFSWIM

Christmas is traditionally a feast day, it has been thus for many years.

I just laugh to myself when I see the OTT adverts with everything going right and remember the episode of the Royale Family when Denise tried to cook Christmas dinner for everyone.

Surely no-one believes that everyone's Christmas is like what you see om the telly? We don't go overboard on the amount of things we cook but I will do a choice of different veg, more of a range than usual. We'll have a little starter, a cracker each, fizz, turkey, don't skimp on the roasties, and a nice dessert. Christmas music playing. Usually just the 4 of us plus 2 inlaws.

The adverts have to show the food off so people know what's available in that particular shop to buy. People don't buy every single item, they buy what they like out of the range.

I agree with you OP it's the injustice of it all that gets me, the haves and the have nots. It's got to the point now where I I think Christmas is such a load of money making shite that I can't be bothered buying in to it. Waste, greed and the rest, highlights everything that is wrong with this country right now.

I haven't watched one this year which is one way to avoid being annoyed at them I suppose.

I agree that as ever people get entirely the wrong idea about Christmas. It shoud be as much about giving to others and God and church as material stuff.

People do need to be aware that not everyone lives like on TV by any means. It is so easy to get influenced by your friends and television and social media. I constantly have to remind my younger children that no most people don't go out to eat or to coffee bars (we don't often) nor all the stuff you see on TV.

I haven't seen a single advert this yr. Watching very little TV is good! :)

I have avoided seeing any adverts like this so far this year as I only watch a few tv programmes I've recorded, then you can fast forward the mass brainwashing ads.

Adverts are the catalyst of consumerism, how else would we know what we 'need' to buy to be 'Happy/Popular/Successful?

After all, everyone knows if you don't drown yourself and your family in caloric, expensive, food for several weeks then diet madly in January (buy diet books, juicer, soup maker, spiraliser) you are not going to be part of the gang.

Don't forget if your tree decorations are the wrong colour (it's fake copper this year-dontcha know, do keep up) or if you haven't got your new sofa, no-one will like you and think you have fallen on hard times.

Of course the more money you spend, the more your family and friends will love you!

YANBU OP. I hope you have a better 2017.

The gap between rich and poor is being widened by the rich getting richer off the back of clever advertising to the rest of us.

The best way to remedy it is to not buy it, neither the actual stuff or the consumerist ideology.

And donate to the charities that can help, or vote for parties who want to reduce social inequality.

And teach your dcs to see through adverts from an early age.

Sorry, was feeling ranty

Actually OP I think YANBU.

I do get the point of ads obviously - and holidays, fashions, cars go over my head most of the time. But food is primal. I hate the encouragement of waste, the emphasis on having too much, the sickening display of so much food regardless of whether or not an individual can afford it or not.

And yes - donate to food banks, volunteer to help at one - and campaign to improve the circumstances of our poor.

Yanbu if you are as equally bothered all year by such adverts.