PAYPAL’s seasonal advertising campaign stars Richard Dawkins telling children that Father Christmas is a logical impossibility.
The 90-second ad begins with the eminent scientist wearing a fake white beard and a red robe, explaining that he will not be making deliveries this year, ‘because I, Father Christmas, am a pernicious lie invented to exploit the gullible’.
Addressing the camera directly, Dawkins adds: “It is physically impossible for a plump man to descend a single chimney shaft, let alone 200 million of them in the course of a single night. To suggest that I could betrays a contempt for the basic principles of physics.
“Ho ho ho.”
Removing his beard, he continues: “If you perpetuate this delusion, you are either too stupid to understand logic, or you are happy to condemn another generation to a slavish belief in the supernatural. Which, in my book, makes you a twat.”
The camera then pans back to reveal a room full of children taking down Christmas decorations to a soundtrack of sleigh bells being destroyed with hammers.
A PayPal spokesman said: “Professor Dawkins has kindly donated his fee to a charity that replaces advent calendars with periodic tables.”
