grumpyf1

The true meaning of (John Lewis at) Christmas Ho Ho Ho! Merry JL Day! There may still be over five weeks until Christmas, but that doesn’t matter when there’s stuff to sell. Lest we forget, John Lewis & Partners’ eagerly-awaited Christmas advert was by no means the first from a major retailer either. With years of classic ads behind them, including a hare waking up a hibernating bear, a penguin called Monty, trampolining wildlife and an old bloke on the moon, 2018’s outing was always going to have a hard time matching it’s predecessors. It even had to contend with the re-branding Bohemian Rhapsody-school-play advert from just a few weeks ago, which was widely applauded. So, what did we get? Elton John. In reverse. Featuring the Prima Donna’s life in “Your Song” moments, from him sitting at his piano in the present day, through his assorted outrageous looks, and back to him receiving the same piano as a child. Wow. Elt’s folks were minted then. A piano? I used to think g...

Hilarious. Yours for 99p. RIP DVD? It’s been a bad week for the shiny 120mm discs, with retailer John Lewis announcing that they are no longer going to sell the players in their stores. As far as the UK goes, the format has only managed to drag itself to it’s 20th birthday, although tech-wizards the Japanese have been spinning the video format since 1995. It was always going to have a troubled existence, with no-one ever really agreeing if it was a Digital Video Disc or a Digital Versatile Disc right from it’s earliest days, when it successfully killed off VHS tapes, in the same way it’s kid brother the CD bumped off audio cassettes. Once found nestling under virtually every TV in the country, the continuing rise of streaming video on demand services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, along with free-to-air catch-up, mean they’ve been gathering dust for a few years now. I can vouch for that – I moved house six months ago, plugged the DVD player in... and haven’t switched i...

It's very unlikely that any of this lot just killed a man... Do not adjust your set. It is NOT Christmas yet. It’s easy to see why you might be confused, though. It seems to have become an eagerly anticipated signifier that it’s OK to start the festivities when the John Lewis advert arrives. So when one suddenly appeared on Tuesday during that other institution, The Great British Bake Off, it’s easy to see why some of us might have had a sudden hankering for eggnog and mince pies. Although the lengthy spot, featuring children performing Bohemian Rhapsody as the centrepiece of the world’s most elaborate school play, had no branding until the very end, it was pretty obviously from the same people who give us the heartstring-tugging Xmas epics. But this one had a twist. At the end were not one, but two logos. Different, new, logos. For John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Brace yourselves, everyone – it’s a rebrand! As both are employee owned, the inclu...

One of these sofa, please - do you do it in "heavily delayed"? “The customer is always right”, the saying goes.  That may well be true, but it would appear some well-known companies are unable to remember that. I’ve encountered two fine examples of big names getting it badly wrong recently, both of which left me considering switching allegiance and frothing at the mouth. First to get their logo emblazoned boldly onto this particular wall of shame is energy supplier NPower. They’ve struggled badly in the past with customer service, regularly appearing way down the rankings when it comes to keeping their punters happy. I still have decidedly un-fond memories of calling them up to change tariffs, then repeatedly having to call them months later as they still hadn’t switched my account and were charging me a higher rate. My current beef revolves around the amount I pay each month for the honour of receiving gas and electricity from them. I have an old house, which g...