Santa .. Sponsored By ..

This weekend we went along to watch the first Sydney Christmas parade. Loosely modeled on the Macey’s Thanksgiving parade in New York (minus the giant balloon figures), the event attracted over 50,000 people according to media reports.

The thing that struck me though was how horribly corporate it all was. Perhaps I was just young and naive, but as a kid I remember watching parades where the floats were clearly knocked up in someone’s garage by a couple of blokes at the weekend. Dodgy plywood strapped on top of an old van and costumes made from old curtains and papier mache sufficed.

I’m no longer naive enough to believe these things are free, or that advertising doesn’t invade every aspect of our day to day lives, but I was somewhat bemused by some of the participants: The Sydney JetBoat? Austar Cable TV? Ronald McDonald? Santa sponsored by the Daily Telegraph?

Maybe I’m just a grumpy git – all the kids around me in the crowd still loved seeing Santa and couldn’t have cared less if he were sponsored by Haliburton. As for some of the others though .. I think I managed to annoy my wife by stating loudly ‘look, here comes an advert for ..’ every time a new group came past 🙂

Have I lost the plot, or just a sign of the times?