I GOT a bit of a shock in Regent Street the other day. The Christmas lights are already up, and where I am used to seeing unadorned Santas, angels and snowflakes, there hangs a series of plugs for Cameron Mackintosh's West End shows. The well-known symbols for Oliver!, Cats, Miss Saigon and Les Miserables are cunningly woven in among the lights and tinsel. This valuable publicity is costing Mackintosh more than £130,000 in sponsorship - and he is decorating the whole of Liberty's, too.
Very clever of him. Personally, I prefer my snowflakes unsponsored.