Wow, there seems to be a lot of kids born in May. 

And the trouble with kids these days is they have birthday parties, tons of them. 

And the trouble with birthday parties is the fact that you have to arrive with a gift in hand. This means spending your hard earned money buying something that you know that little birthday boy or girl, as cute as they are, will play with for ten seconds before moving onto the next shiny new toy that the next door neighbour has just arrived with.

And to rub it in, all of this toy-flipping happens right in front of you whilst you are standing in the heat of the day drinking a juice that someone’s little precious has backwashed in, and all you can think of is that money could have been better spent on something really important and worthwhile. 

Like yourself.

I know it sounds selfish and it pretty much is. But you would be thinking it too so don’t judge me.

Which leads me to a Christmas campaign that was created for Harvey Nichols during 2013 that resonated with me for that very reason of being selfish.

They celebrated it. 

And they did it during a time when everyone else was talking about giving to your loved ones and showing the gift of love. Not Harvey Nichols, as they shouted against this and declared that the only loved one you should be spending your good money on was, you guessed it, yourself. 

Introducing the “Sorry, I spent it on myself” campaign.

A simple idea that tapped into our inner grinch and was brought to life by an entire product range of cheap gifts that you could give out to your loved ones whilst saving you tons of cash to rather spend on yourself.

And with a campaign line of “Little something for them. A bigger something for you.” why wouldn’t you.

They created products ranging from real metal paper clips to bags of gravel from Lincolnshire. And my personal favourite a special Christmas lunch in a can, minus the trimmings. Love that.

They launched this brave idea with a teaser film which helped create the hype they needed for people to be selfish. Not that they needed to as all the products were sold out in the first 3 days and it shows we are more selfish than we think.

They did everything they could to help people not waste any more money on their loved ones. Like introducing a Christmas card you could download for free and helping you with wrapping paper by repurposing the in-store brochures into gift wrap.

Then they released “gifting” films which showed people receiving gifts from their loved ones, like your grandmother receiving real metal coated paper clips or your husband receiving a bag of elastic bands whilst you have a brand new bag or a new shirt that you bought for yourself. 

Simple and funny.

The best thing about this campaign is everything they did was selfish, even the design and art direction was done in the most cost cutting and no frills way, saving every cent they could to add to Harvey Nichols bottom line. 

Not only was the campaign loved by everyone but they then went on to take home  four Grand Prix’s at Cannes for promo, film, press and integrated. Selfish Bastards.

So ignore what you are doing right now, forget that important job or that important client meeting and focus on “you” and watch this.

Sorry, I selfishly wish I had done that.