Thomas Burberry

Hello.

   This is probably your favourite time of year, if you work in adland. For everyone else it is the equivalent of getting your fingernails ripped out one by one by an evil Christmas elf over the course of two months.
 
   The first to cause a wave on the social media feeds of the ad agencies was 'The Tale of Thomas Burberry' which was 'published' on Tuesday, 1st November. In that sense you have to applaud the brands, at least they wait for Halloween to be over before releasing their oh-so-heart-felt mini-films on us, unlike the decorations in their High Street shops. At an estimate this biopic of the founding father of Burberry could have cost anywhere between 5 and 10 million, but then again Jihn Lowis shovelled (a fork is too small) out seven million for a fucking cartoon. So God knows what the budget was.
 
   Everything is so beautiful in this piece. The beautiful actors, the beautiful sets, the beautiful sense of early 20th-century middle-class snobbery. Oh so beautiful! However...
 
   Before I go on, let me make it clear that I am fully aware that it is an advert and all that, not an industry known for its honesty...
 
   However, Thomas Burberry worked for himself from 1856, so he wouldn't have had a stern-looking boss looking over his shoulder whilst creating his famous gabardine, that happened in 1879. Essentially, he was born in 1835, so would have been 79 years old at the outbreak of the Great War and, by dying in 1926, he missed AE Clouston's record-breaking flight from London to Cape Town by....11 years!
 
   But, hey, what does the truth matter, right, if the ad looks beautiful? And if you really want to see a clip that combines Christmas and Burberry please look no further than this festive little tune.

It's all a load of Bovine Skittles!