Line #39 Main/CommercializedChristmas


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coca_cola_christmas.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:[[SantaClausmas Jesus]] ''[[SantaClausmas who?]]'' ]]
6
7	->''"Well, if they're not here for the Christmas pitch, I can't help them find new ways of tying their product in to Christmas. That's why I'm chairman of this board! Let's hear it for me!"''
8	-->-- '''Mr. Scrooge''', from Creator/StanFreberg's "Green Chri$tma$"
9
10	Some people ask themselves what they can do to show the Christmas spirit in their community, and answer by doing things like volunteering and donating food. Others ask themselves what they can do to help Christmas showcase (and sell) lots and lots of their products, and answer by enlisting ad agencies to whip up plenty of TV commercials, radio spots, print ads, billboards, online pop-ups, [[TheMerch tie-in products]], etc.
11
12	The veneer of wholesomeness on the facade of Christmas-themed advertisements is as thin as the fake snow on the Hollywood soundstages these commercials were filmed on.
13
14	See also ChristmasRushed and ChristmasCreep.
15
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Advertising]]
21	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' Cereal Christmas commercials.
22	* "Happy Honda Days."
23	* Car commercials with price tags framed like Christmas ornaments, or with huge bows on top of the cars.
24	* Jingle Bells corrupted to "O-o-o-o-big-Overstock.com."
25	* Fruit of the Loom commercial over-emphasizing the "comfort" in "tidings of comfort and joy."
26	* Norelco shows [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUQycfgCjr0 Santa riding through the snow on one of their razors.]]
27	* The commercial with the gingerbread man where tossing his kids cell phones constitutes the extent of his holiday festivities.
28	* [=McCormick=]. "Tis the seasoning!"
29	* Coca-Cola. No, they didn't ''invent'' the image of fat, red-and-white-suited, white-bearded SantaClaus, but their advertising starting [[OlderThanRadio in pre-broadcast times]] helped to make the version that matched their company colors ''the'' memetic Santa. (Also the polar bears.)
30	* The commercial with the Hershey's Kisses playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as little bells.
31	* Honey Nut Cheerios has a holiday commercial in which Ebenezer Scrooge is tempted by the honey and nuts.
32	* The ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL7DEsA-eHk Radio Shack Holiday Heroes]]'' ads blatantly implies that [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas Christmas is all about the presents]].
33	* December 2010 Best Buy campaign. Similiar to Radio Shack above, with most blatant openly stating that Christmas Magic is about more viable payment options.
34	* A long-running spot for Gallo's André line of sparkling wines exhorted viewers to "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8iSaFn7x0M Take André home for the holidays!]]"
35	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktw4J8kg3SE This Christmas card]] was sent to you by the people at Miller High Life."
36	* Along similar lines, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVXOhO_sTNw Budweiser's Clydesdale horses]]. Seems in the '70s everyone liked getting drunk at Christmas time, especially while watching televised UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball.
37	* "Fa-la-la-la, fa-la-la-la, T.J. Maxx!" (Its parent company [[RepurposedPopSong reworked the lyrics]] to "Up on the Housetop" to plug T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and [=HomeGoods=] stores.)
38	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFoZNKPpAoI Peter Comes Home]]", a well-remembered '80s commercial for Folger's coffee.
39	** And its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMwFWDIFVCU 2009 update]], which led to a PlatonicWritingRomanticReading (and therefore a squicky if entirely unintentional IncestSubtext) on the part of some viewers.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
43	* In ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', the Christians for Consumerism are marching across a department store on Christmas Eve while a little girl asks to a mall Santa for her own credit card.
44	* ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas2000'': Cindy Lou Who is feeling disillusioned because everyone in Whoville seems to be obsessed with Christmas decorations, contests, and the buying of gifts. She sings about her Yuletide doubts in the song "Where Are You, Christmas?"
45	* The main reason why ''Film/SavingChristmas'' didn't do well even among its Christian target audience was because, rather than reaffirming the spiritual and religious significance of Christmas (the name being a truncated form of "Christ's Mass", by the way) as one might expect, Creator/KirkCameron instead spends much of the runtime using some rather specious logic in ''support'' of the holiday's commercialization, such as how spending money on lots of material things actually honors the birth of Christ rather than diminishes it, since He came to world in a material body (yes, [[InsaneTrollLogic that's the whole argument]]).
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* Creator/StephenColbert has pointed out that when [[WindmillCrusader "culture warriors"]] like Bill O'Reilly insist that stores should refer specifically to Christmas and not "the holidays," what they're actually demanding is that the Christian festival they're trying to defend should be used as a vulgar marketing tool. You'd think that if they're really concerned with preserving the TrueMeaningOfChristmas, they'd be glad to have it distanced from the kind of advertising described above.
50	* Once ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/KamenRider'' adopted little collectible items as the foci of their toylines, it was a short hop to add a Christmas-themed collectible in the set as a holiday promotion. These may or may not receive gratuitous ProductPlacement in the shows themselves.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Music]]
54	* A major theme of Music/TomLehrer's "A Christmas Carol", on ''Music/AnEveningWastedWithTomLehrer''.
55	-->Hark, the ''Herald Tribune'' sings,\
56	Advertising wondrous things.\
57	God rest ye merry, merchants,\
58	May you make the Yuletide pay.\
59	Angels we have heard on high\
60	Tell us to go out and buy.
61	* Referenced by Music/TimMinchin in his [[ChristmasSongs Christmas song]] "White Wine in the Sun"
62	-->And yes, I have all of the usual objections to consumerism,\
63	The commercialisation of an ancient religion,\
64	And the westernisation of a dead Palestinian\
65	Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Podcasts]]
69	* ''Podcast/PlumbingTheDeathStar'' did a Christmas special on which fictional character could [[SubbingForSanta sub for Santa]] the best, which went downhill when one of them suggested Ronald [=McDonald=]. The main objection to letting Ronald [=McDonald=] become Santa Claus is that he'd ruin Christmas by turning it into [=McDonald=]'s Day and only giving children Happy Meals instead of actual presents, removing all magic and joy from the holiday and turning it into a hollow day of greed.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
73	* Spoofed on ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' during the [[YouMeanXmas Refrigerator Day]] episode: "We wish you a happy Fridge Day / We wish you a happy Fridge Day / We wish you a happy Fridge Day / So come in and buy paint!"
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy]]
77	* Creator/StanFreberg's 1958 comedy record "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5IXlfJSEi4 Green Chri$tma$]]" may very well be the TropeNamer. It takes characters from ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' like Scrooge and Bob Cratchit and puts them into an executive firm, where they discuss how to best advertise their products during the holidays. Cratchit is an HonestCorporateExecutive, whereas everyone else is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive decidedly not]].
78	-->'''Scrooge:''' Well, if they're not here for the Christmas pitch, I can't help them find new ways of tying their product in to Christmas. That's why I'm chairman of this board! Let's hear it for me!
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Video Games]]
82	* In ''VideoGame/TheDarksideDetective'', a TV in the electronics store window at the mall where [=McQueen=] goes Christmas shopping is showing an ad in which Santa exhorts children to make their parents prove how much they care by buying expensive presents.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Western Animation]]
86	* ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' is one big TakeThat at this trope and a satirical look of the tendency for corporations to appropriate and secularize Christmas to hock products. Charlie Brown finds himself increasingly disillusioned with the shallow, materialistic idea of the TrueMeaningOfChristmas that most of the kids have, and the special ultimately climaxes with Linus giving a speech directly quoting the Bible, driving home that Christmas ''is'' a religious holiday, not a glorified commercial, and that treating it as the latter is disingenuous at best, offensive at worst. In a truly staggering case of ComicallyMissingThePoint, the original 1965 broadcast included a moment in the opening ice-skating scene which ends with Linus crashing into a sign advertising Coca-Cola; no fans mourn that this was cut from all subsequent airings.
87	* In ''[[WesternAnimation/NeoYokio Neo Yokio's]]'' ChristmasEpisode, "[[Recap/NeoYokioPinkChristmas Pink Christmas]]", Kaz's friendliest nemesis, Arcangelo Corelli, exploits the TrueMeaningOfChristmas to convince the citizens of Neo Yokio that capitalism and the mindless exchange of presents are perverting the reason for the season, and that Christmas should be celebrated by coming together with their fellow man... to attend his (pricey) Christmas spectacular! While sales of more traditional Christmas goods drop precipitously, Arcangelo's event quickly becomes the hottest ticket in town.
88	--> '''Arcangelo:''' Ho ho ho. Use offer code FUCKMATERIALGOODS to receive $5 off any purchase of $200 or more.
89	* In the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' episode ''The Toy that Saved Christmas'', this is the whole marketing strategy for Buzzsaw Louie. The following lines are from a commercial for the toy:
90	-->'''Mr. Nezzer:''' Buzzsaw Louie also knows the true meaning of Christmas! All you have to do is press his nose...
91	-->'''Buzzsaw Louie:''' Christmas is when you get stuff! You need more toys!
92	-->'''Mr. Nezzer:''' You just won't be happy until your parents get you a Buzzsaw Louie, the only toy with a working buzzsaw, and the true meaning of Christmas!
93	-->'''Buzzsaw Louie:''' Billy has more toys than you!
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Real Life]]
97	* In November 2013, former US Vice-Presidential candidate UsefulNotes/SarahPalin [[https://web.archive.org/web/20131212131256/http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/sarah-palin-i-love-the-commercialization-of-christmas advocated the commercialization of Christmas,]] on the grounds that it helped spread awareness of Christianity in America.
98	* Old prints and illustrations from the 19th century and before reveal that Father Christmas and his helpers could be any colour you liked, with (in Britain at least) yellow and green predominating. In Russia, "Ded Moroz" and his helpers still favour blue with white trim.[[note]]Although red is creeping in since the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening up of the country to Western influences.[[/note]] Red only began to be the default colour with the global creep of Coca-Cola dressing Santa in their corporate colours.
99	* Condemning Christmas presents and the material nature of the date has been a catholic tradition back until [[OlderThanPrint the early Middle Ages]].
100	* Do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Probably, yeah. But you may not already know that, rather than starting out as the piece of treasured holiday folklore that he is now, Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer was originally commissioned by Montgomery Ward department stores to sell coloring books, when they decided that in-house publishing would be cheaper than sourcing them from wholesalers. Yep, Rudolph and his shiny red honker are the direct result of both Christmastime targeted marketing ''and'' corporate cost-cutting measures.
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	----
104	-->'''[[TheStinger Bob Cratchit]]:''' Well, I guess you fellas will never change.
105	-->'''Mr. Scrooge:''' Why should we? "Christmas" has two S's in it, and they're both dollar signs.

Context Main / CommercializedChristmas