No longer do we eagerly await the summer sale. Thanks to daily deals websites, online vouchers, and retailers’ desperation to sell, sell, sell, there's a sale nearly every day. But how does this permanent sale phenomenon affect the way people spend?

From wistful penguins, to overworked mums and even trench warfare, this year Christmas adverts tug at our heartstrings harder than ever. We sat down with Dr. Alex Gordon, semiotician and founder of Sign Salad to discuss the meaning behind the media magic.

Presents, turkey, carols and crackers – what's not to love about Christmas? And although the 25th of December only comes around once a year, a September 2015 report from Greene King shows that Brits are already gearing up for the festive season, buying presents and booking get-togethers.

From toothbrushes to paper clips, Harvey Nichols’ special Christmas collection encourages people to buy “a little something” for their loved ones – so they can buy “a bigger something” for themselves. It taps into a growing trend: self-gifting.

Once solely a US phenomenon, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now a big deal in the UK. Retailers around the world, both on and offline, will discount their goods on the last Friday of November and first Monday of December with all-time spending records set to be broken.

Can you imagine a day with more deals than Black Friday? It’s the discount shopper’s dream that Amazon intends on delivering with ‘Prime Day’ – an online shopping holiday launched in celebration of the retailer's 20th anniversary. And it’s only available to members of its Prime service.

It might hark back to a meal shared by US Pilgrims and the Native Americans whose land they were plundering, but that’s not going to stop Brits getting their piece of the (pumpkin) pie. According to Waitrose the holiday was celebrated by one in six of shoppers in the UK.

Black Friday – a day of flash sales after Thanksgiving designed to kick-start Christmas shopping – is a shopping phenomenon in the US. And despite being intrinsically linked with an American holiday, it’s gaining traction across Europe. But can the Black Friday madness extend to China?