The Cookie Consumerist Conspiracy Theory… sure they are sweet, spicy, and they smile, but what do they really want?
The other day, when I picked up the mail the Postal person had dropped thru my mail slot (we're talkin' "snail mail", for those of you who have forgotten or see it as quaint nostalgia), I'd found that I had a piece of my neighbor's mail. I was surprised by the envelope, as it had the words "Happy Thanksgiving" in large type on the front of it. It was dropped off to my neighbor, when I learned it was for a charity - a marketing ploy to get a jump on the 'giving season'.
While I'm sure the charity and other charitable organizations gotta do what they've gotta do to reach donors; the whole 'holiday' idea was a wee bit too early for me. It IS October, isn't it? I mean I really don't think I've been lost in some space-time continuum. Or, when you are really busy, some days seem to flow right into the next, you know when you think for a minute that it's Thursday and it's really Wednesday - that sort of lost time thing. Halloween hasn't happened yet, right?!
Yes, I should expect it; holiday advertising starts earlier every year. Already a department store chain has been doing a lay-a-way campaign for a couple of months now, with a large gingerbread cookie stalking and freaking out an office worker; but "Happy Thanksgiving" caught me off guard, nonetheless.
I don't know, I kind of miss holidays being actual holidays, in their respective purpose and times. I'm not really in to gingerbread in June, and in October, I want to carve those pumpkins, not make pie. National holidays almost don't exist anymore, except for another day off. Or to shop. There's a disconnect when the Founding Fathers and Martin Luther King, Jr. are relegated to a Monday off. The last one, of the national holidays, was Columbus Day. I think the only ones who actually acknowledged it were Italian-Americans in parades and Native Americans in protest. The rest of the populous was looking for car and furniture deals.
Even though I've spent a good deal of my professional life in advertising, knowing "the game", I still prefer one holiday at a time. "Christmas in July" was just when the marketing strategies began and were consummated for the Christmas season, but weren't hauled out until after Thanksgiving, at one time.
Still, I remember shopping for a wedding present, a couple of years ago - in July, and that particular department store already had 'dancing Santas' and ornaments on display. I guess it's too late. For me to bitch, that is. Having worked in the field, makes me a hypocrite, I suppose. Marketing Madness is already and has been a run-a-way train for decades now. The Hickory Farms catalogs are in the mail. The gingerbread men have most likely been made and are being shipped as we speak. It still just doesn't seem right.
All I can say now is, be mindful of large smiling gingerbread cookies lurking behind plants in your office - you never know what they are capable of! Call 911!
By the way, I almost forgot... there IS A HOLIDAY coming up soon... Have Great HALLOWEEN!
Posted by: Maxwell Talks! | 10/22/2013 at 11:38 AM