The Season of Sentimentality

Christmas is the season of sentimentality.  At least, in terms of TV adverts it is - there's nothing like a tug on the heart strings to sell some seasonal goods.  It's all about families, paeans to motherhood and concern for the poor and homeless - well, the latter, are what the ads for charities focus on in order to elicit a few more contributions.  Guilt can be a powerful motivator.  Don't get me wrong - the campaigns run by the likes of Shelter and the Salvation Army at this time of year are highly laudable.  But there's no doubt that they are designed to play on the heart strings and make you feel guilty over having a reasonable standard of living while others are forced to live in poverty or, worse still, on the streets.  Which is perfectly legitimate.  The Salvation Army ads, where those poor but terribly sweet looking kids are wondering whether Santa will call this year, are especially powerful.  They'd probably be even more powerful if they weren't now several years old - those kids are probably far less cute teenagers now.  I know, I know, charities like the Salvation Army can't waste money making new ad campaigns every year - quite rightly they need to concentrate their resources upon actually helping those forced to live in poverty.  Besides, only obsessives like me notice the fact that their ads are frozen in time.

To return to the point - advertisers smother this season in sentimentality and, I have to admit, it even affects me.  Christmas is the only time of year that I allow myself some sentimentality, so some of these commercials hit the mark with me.  Not the ones trying to sell me stuff, but some of the aforementioned charity campaigns do.  Particularly the ones for distressed and homeless cats.  Now, I know the specific ads I'm thinking of aren't strictly speaking Christmas commercials - they play all year round - but they undoubtedly play more at this time of year.  There are two of them, both on the theme of cats made homeless, either by the death of their owners, or abandonment.  One of them is from the RSPCA and features a tabby cat staring through the window of its former home, recalling the good times when its owner was alive, uncomprehending of why she is now sshut out of her own home.  It gets to me every time.  Thankfully, the ad ends with the cat being rescued by a lady from the RSPCA and the promise that the feline will be re-homed.  The other one is for the Cats Protection League or some similar cat-related charity and similarly features a cat - this time a white one - enviously staring through a window at another cat which is happily living in the bosom of a loving family.  Now, in this one, there is no neat conclusion where the white cat is adopted by said family, or rescued by the RSPCA.  We're left wondering as to his fate.  Which bothers me.  I worry about that cat. Really, I do.  That advert haunts me.  Which means it must be doing its job.