Pick 'n Pay, Southern Suburbs, Cape Town: 20 October 2007
Above: Pick 'n Pay apparently has it in for my psyche and general mental well-being.
It used to be that on 25 October every year the first ads for Christmas would appear on TV. You could set your watch by it. My first ad experience of each season is a horrible moment that starts me on a two-month rant about consumerism, advertising, marketing, and meaninglessness, as you can imagine. The TV ads are soon followed by flyers and marketing materials in our mailboxes and newspapers, decorations in stores, and finally the installation of the Christmas lights in the city, down Adderley Street, that may eventually be removed in about April, if you're lucky.
To my horror, this year, I was absentmindedly standing in a queue at my local Pick 'n Pay last Saturday afternoon and as I got to the till I looked up and saw this garish display, five days early! Up rose the nausea, out came the camera, and herewith is the shot. Gah!
Labels: Cape Town, Miscellanea And Randomnity, PhotoBlog
posted by Mandy J Watson at 3:09 PM
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13 Comments:
Good thing you didn't go to Shoprite - in the first week of October they already had a Christmas section for decorations/trees etc (to sell). I walked past and pulled a disgusted face at it all.
About 2 weeks later they had their awful decorations up.
Some company (I think it might be Vodacom?) are currently advertising their birthday month (a radio ad). What horrible noise is playing in the background?
Well, Christmas carols, obviously.. What other music would you play on your birthday?!
I think I may have seen some early Christmas signs elsewhere in the past month but the minute I even suspect that that is the case I immediately erase the moment from my memory. It's better that way.
You have to admire the all-inclusive approach. Putting up the Xmas decorations in October means that everybody gets annoyed, not just the christians.
Good point. It is more in the spirit of the non-denominational "festive" season. Trust us to be accidental pioneers.
The Cape Town Christmas lights have already been put up on the Foreshore/along Adderley Street, although I don't think they have been lit up yet (and they are the of increasingly common "neutral" variety). I can second the observation by tre - Shoprite had their decorations up on 2/10, which meant that for a while, you'd be greeted with signs wishing you a Merry Xmas, Eid Muburrak or Rosh Hoshanah! And is it me, or does the green box with tassels near the centre of the pic remind one of those two legged Imperial Walker thingeys (AT-ST??) from "Return of the Jedi"? LOL
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) I no longer sit at a desk with a window that faces right up Adderley ... and, erm, you are a total geek! (And now that's all I see too when I look at that photo. I think in future I should say that that's why I took it in the first place. :)
LOL! It was either that or a seriously maimed square spider about to jump on something...!
Square LUMO GREEN spider. You don't find that odd?
Although a fluffy AT-ST is just as weird.
I used to have problems with Christmas decorations in October as well, but honestly now I realise I only have a month to do the shopping for the kids before they are on holidays. I am totally not even seeing the decorations, having just emerged from a spate of birthday shopping.
Unfortunately I am unable to miss them.
My eyes! My eyes!
I will probably catch on when they play the eerie Christmas music, although in this day and age with "gifting" instead of Christmas maybe it is politically incorrect to play carols.
Please. It's Boney M season. That trumps political correctness. You wait and see.
I, meanwhile, will be piercing my eardrums with any sharp instrument I can get my hands on.
We are obviously shopping in different stores, Mr Price Sports, Sheet Street and Ackermans all play such digusting music I can't get out of there fast enough. Pick'nPay plays Kfm therefore our side of the boerie curtain has not given way to Boney M.
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