Enough to pull the purse strings

It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid.

How many people are really afraid of Christmas? Some may dread the endless shopping, wrapping of presents and general mayhem and revelry, but afraid? Not that the Diary is too critical of Messrs Geldof and Ure, as all they were doing was using Christmas to get us to put our hands in our pockets and help those in need.

It seems the marketing world goes into a frenzy of generosity when the festive season draws upon us. The Diary’s inbox has been bursting with the strain of press releases telling of charitable gestures.

Like that from the Walt Disney Company. It is donating toys and gifts to 17,000 children in Capital Radio’s charity, Help a London Child. Not only that, but several of the children were put through the trauma of having a six-foot mouse inflicted upon them (the Diary has never understood children’s fascination with an over-sized rodent). Teams of volunteers from Capital and Disney have already started handing out 23,000 toys this week. Unfortunately they will not be dressed up as Disney characters.

A bit further south, Southampton marketing agency Remarkable is embarking on a quite, er⦠remarkable scheme. Instead of sending Christmas cards to clients, it has spent the money on adopting two children from deprived countries. The agency has adopted two three-year-old children, one from Africa, the other in El Salvador. The adoption is through a charity called Plan, which sponsors more than 1,000,000 children worldwide.

Finally, design group AIG has assembled a team of international creatives to donate their time to design an exhibition portraying the rebuilding of places and people’s lives in Sri Lanka on behalf of Christian Aid. The exhibition opens at Dray Walk Gallery on December 8. Among the creatives that AIG’s Tim fendley, Kasper de Graaf and Malcolm Garrett with be collaborating with is Martyn Ware of the Illustrious Company. Ware used to be in 1980s new romantic band “Feels Like Heaven” Heaven 17 and performed on the original Band Aid single. Thus bringing this “charathon” full circle.