A wee news flash for all you corporate Santa Claus types...

If it has your logo on it, it's not a gift - it's advertising!

Every x-mas we get send a shit-tonne of "gifts". From calendars and mouse pads, to beach towels and bottle openers. Every single one of them comes with the company logo that gave us the gift engraved, printed or silkscreened on to it. I've never understood this.

If you truly want to give someone a gift, why brand it? Just give it to them - no strings attached. For it to be a gift it needs to be selfless, and that means no logo (the exception to the rule is when you're a consumer brand - a client at Nike recently gave me a pair of design-em-yourself-trainers, that's obviously a different story - and it rocked).

Imagine all the x-mas presents you get from your family and friends this year has their face or name on it. Crazy, no?

Here's the marketing clincher though. If you don't brand it people are more likely to use it (fact), and if the gift is cool, relevant, and memorable they'll never forget who gave it to them - and will happily tell people that ask about it, the story behind it.

Not totally selfless then...!

PS. This doesn't just apply to x-mas, but all corporate gifts.