Thumbs down:The Galway Races have barely ended and the summer has not even started yet, but retailers are already gearing up for the obscene commercial splurge that is Christmas.

On the first day of August, a Habitat catalogue promoting all sorts of Christmassy stuff landed on our desk.

Not in our face

Thumbs up:Vodafone and First Direct have pulled advertising from Facebook to stop their brands appearing near British National Party details. Their adverts were among several which flashed up on a rotating basis on the same page as the right-wing group.

Advertisers cannot control where on Facebook their brands appear. A Vodafone spokeswoman said the mobile phone firm bought bundles of advertising space across a number of websites. "We were not aware that a Vodafone advertisement would appear next to the British National Party."

Fast fashion fix fades

Thumbs down:The era of cheap fashion could be at an end. Shoppers will not see the "dramatic" falls in price which have hit high streets in the past few years according to market analysts. Instead, some items will get more expensive. This is partly because shoppers are "saturated" with clothes, with the average woman now buying twice as many items a year as she did in 1995.