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Peter Andre accuses radio stations of false advertising by playing classic Christmas song
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 16 December 2022
Former pop star Peter Andre has called on radio stations to stop playing classic Christmas song ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’, on the grounds that Christmas is actually shit.
That’s not quite how he put it. But it’s close. Andre says he’s discovered the results of a survey which recently found that British people prefer summer holidays to Christmas. A sizeable majority, in fact – 78% – reckoned that their summer break was a more wonderful time than crappy old Christmas.
“The results of the survey do not surprise me”, says Andre in an open letter to all British radio stations. “Sure, festive frolics are fun but let’s face it, Christmas can get repetitive and pressurising. It’s much more exciting to visit new places, experience new things and make meaningful memories, and there’s no better place to do that than on holiday”.
It’s not clear what question the 2000 people who were polled in this survey were actually asked, but we do know that it was conducted on behalf of holiday seller On The Beach, which – coincidentally – has just appointed Andre as its Head Of Summer Holidays.
I mean, sure. Of course that’s a job that he’s actually doing and which definitely involves more than just moaning a bit about Christmas songs.
“In my new role, all I can do now is politely ask radio stations to respect the British people’s viewpoint and not play ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’ at Christmas anymore”, Andre continues. “Perhaps they can play it on a loop in July instead?”
Oh yeah, that makes total sense. If another time of year is more wonderful, then we should definitely be playing the Andy William’s classic then. Although, there is a chance that the lyrics about “kids jingle belling”, “carols in the snow” and “much mistletoeing” might just remind us that we do actually quite like Christmas after all.
Anyway, this is all quite light-hearted nonsense, isn’t it? Although Andre does then get more technical in his official moan as Head Of Summer Holidays for On The Beach, telling radio stations that by playing the ‘Wonderful’ song in December, they are breaking rules on false advertising. And those aren’t some rules he’s just made up – he’s referring to the official rules that appear in section three of the broadcast code put together by the UK’s Committee Of Advertising Practice.
“By playing this track you are giving your listeners false hope that Christmas and winter in general is the most wonderful time of the year, when in fact, it isn’t”, he says. “And I even have data to prove it. Recent findings from On The Beach have confirmed what we already suspected; 78% of people, so more than three quarters of Brits, believe that going on holiday is better than Christmas”.
“Therefore, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the population (85%) agree the Andy Williams song is factually incorrect”, he adds, “proving Christmas simply is not the most wonderful time of the year”.
Who suspected that? And where did this 85% figure come from? Three quarters of British people don’t actually like Christmas that much, but 85% have a beef with the Williams song. Is that what you’re telling me?
Andre and On The Beach don’t give any further detail on that number, but they do have some more stats. They reckon that just 38% of Brits love Christmas, while 39% of the population identifies as “Christmas neutral”. Putting even more of a dampener on things, the survey found that 57% of respondents are “dreading or unexcited” about Christmas this year.
“We could not agree with Pete more”, says On The Beach’s Zoe Harris, weakly attempting to give the impression that Andre came up with this idea – or even wrote a word of this open letter – himself. “The survey findings clearly demonstrate a shift of preference to holidays being more magical and memorable than Christmas. People want to enjoy experiences rather than be gifted a material present”.
“What’s more”, she goes on, “people want to take time for themselves during precious days away from work, enjoying the joyous moments in life, such as sunbathing and sea-swimming, rather than being bound by the constant pressures of Christmas when people rarely take time to relax”.
To be fair, Zoe’s version of Christmas does sound awful. Maybe she and Pete just need to make a bit more of an effort. After all, who can afford to think about a summer holiday right now? Much better to spend the few quid that haven’t gone on your heating bill on a tree and a few gifts and try to make the best of it.
