Time to eat, drink and be, er, quite upset

Bargain Booze marketing manager Matt Leach is not a happy man. In fact he’s spitting feathers.

Bargain Booze’s Christmas ad was supposed to feature a man who turns up at a fancy-dress party in a Batman costume only to discover his friend has turned up dressed as a robin of the feathered variety, rather than the caped crusader’s trusty sidekick. But it was turned down by the BACC because the Batman character was considered too likely to appeal to children, Leach was miffed. When he then saw Asda’s Christmas ad featuring Santa Claus, his miff turned into a full-on tantrum. Asda sells alcohol too, you see.

Intrigued as to what is classed as “appealing to children”, Leach asked the BACC. It explained that Santa (aka Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children) is OK because he’s “the embodiment of Christmas”. (Asda hasn’t gone as far as having Santa getting pissed on its sherry. Yet.) Not unreasonably, Leach wonders if it will be OK for him to use the Easter Bunny in Bargain Booze’s Easter promotions, as it’s the embodiment of Easter.

All of which comes as a surprise to the Diary, which thought that that bloke with the beard and a crown of thorns was the embodiment of both Christmas and Easter. Or is that just naively harking back to a lost age before the power of marketing took hold?