Retailers' Christmas Adverts: Love Them Or Loathe Them?

'Tis the season of retailers' Christmas adverts.

Lidl have already released theirs, the Coca Cola Christmas advert should be appearing any time soon, and the big one - the John Lewis Christmas advert 2015 - is hotly anticipated and expected to be released online later this week.

But if your Facebook feed is anything like mine, it'll have been awash with people sharing a Spanish Ikea ad over the weekend. The premise is simple. A bunch of kids are asked to write the Spanish equivalent of a letter to Santa, detailing what pressies they'd like for Christmas.

Then, the same bunch of kids are asked to write a letter to tell their parents what they'd like for Christmas. As you can guess, the results tug on the old heart-strings just a tad.

Here's a selection of the things the kids ask their parents for:

I want you to spend more time with me. That we do more experiments at home.

I'd like it if you paid a little bit more attention to us.

I'd like it if you would have dinner with us more often.

I want you to tickle me... and read us a story.

I want us to be together one whole day.

I want to play, Mama, I want you to play cowboys with me.

Gulp. Now people have been going all gushy and gooey over this ad but I pretty much just felt a little guilt-tripped by it.

I love the timely reminder that our kids don't want more and more stuff - they just want our time and attention, but there's something about watching parents be reminded of that by the kids that feels wrong to me.

One mother in the ad describes her light-bulb moment on reading her child's letter like this:

Imagine! You want to give them the best you can, and the best is yourself.

Or maybe I'm just feeling over-sensitive at how infrequently I play cowboys.

But what's your view? Did you find the Spanish Ikea ad adorable, or have you had your fill of retailers trying to shove schmaltzy messages down our throats at Christmas?

Last year, according to the Telegraph, a whopping £7m was spent on the John Lewis Christmas advert, and Monty the Penguin merchandise sold out online within hours of the ad appearing, and was listed on eBay the following day at mark-ups of more than 400pc. Madness.

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