This time of year even the days have marketing names… “Black Friday.” “Small Business Saturday.” “Cyber Monday.” Every day is “PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST SPEND MONEY” day! Marketing is so out of control. Maybe the universe is getting even with me for marketing as a profession by inundating me with it as a concession. We are bombarded with advertising like never before. It’s inescapable. Marketeers spend so that we spend. It’s the circle of consumer life.
“Marketers are expected to spend 540 billion
dollars globally on advertising this year.”
Ad Age – March 2015
My television viewing consists largely of recorded shows about the universe or the mind, and sports. The former I record and can fast-forward through the ads. The latter is a maddening barrage of ads intermingled with short bursts of actual sports. Let’s take football for example. There is one hour of play in a regulation game, yet broadcasts last about 3 ½. Here, try this. When there are two games on and one goes to commercial, switch to the other. Commercial. Or this. Scroll through the TV listings until you see a show you like. Click on it. Commercial.
Spend, Spend. Spend. It is our responsibility as Americans, and to do it by any means necessary, especially now.
The National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurants) to increase 3.7 percent over 2014 to $630.5 billion. In 2014, Americans spent over $50 billion just on Black Friday weekend, and we borrowed over $20 billion of that.
Running a deficit is the American way because we want what we want and we want it for Christmas.
This is from Wikipedia so do with it what you will, but “based on an analysis of Federal Reserve statistics and other government data, the average household owes $7,529 on their cards; looking only at indebted households, the average outstanding balance rises to $16,140. And over the holidays in 2014, those indebted households added an average of $986 to their cards…
No, this isn’t part of some liberal elite “war on Christmas.” It’s more a secular than religious holiday now anyway, with people of all faiths or none at all duking it out at Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving. I grew up Catholic, but put my faith in science today. Still, I learned enough about the real meaning of Christmas, and still hold on to it today:
Love.
Hope.
Peace.
May you all overindulge on that this year.
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