Monday, November 28, 2011
Black Friday and Cyber Monday... Consumerism at its Finest
You all know what I am talking about. The days that follow Thanksgiving are supreme shopping days. The most popular of these days are black Friday and cyber Monday. While home on break I must have seen 30 commercials for Wal-Mart black Friday sales within an hour time span. It was absolutely nuts! I understand that we are in a recession and retailers have to make their money, but come on now, do advertisers really need to shove it in our faces? It kind of makes me want to avoid Wal-mart all together. Cyber Monday commercials are not much better. I saw like 10 of them within the hour. Again, NUTS! It is almost as if holiday shopping has become a religion. Some stores have even went as far as to open their doors on Thanksgiving night. So much for celebrating the holiday with family. The most depressing part of the whole thing was the fact that most of the stores that were opening Thanksgiving night were those that targeted children, like Toys R Us and Wal-mart. What the heck is this teaching kids...for real1
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The whole culture surrounding Black Friday is crazy, and the commercials around it definitely try to idealize this kind of consumerism. One thing I thought was interesting was the attempt of advertisers to paint (always female) Black Friday shoppers as kinds of athletes. I remember one Walmart commercial where two women are shopping and they spot "Doris," gasping that she's a Black Friday "living legend." This Target commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFBsxwKHT14&feature=related), though obviously attempting to be humorous, depicts the same sort of "extreme shopping;" a young woman trains for days wrapping presents, curling shopping baskets, and sprinting in order to prepare herself. I found this commercial annoying and mildly offensive. I understand that it's supposed to be a joke, but I also understand that it's a joke at women's expense. Women are portrayed as laughable for their commitment to such an absurd pastime, and this pastime is trivialized by comically equating it with awe inspiring legends and sports. As a woman who doesn't particularly like shopping, the assumptions that women will go crazy for the right sale and the trivialization of women because of this is frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYes Black Friday and Cyber Monday have taken over the actual holiday Thanksgiving in my eyes and has become the new holiday. some shoppers even had their kids out shopping with them at the wee hours of the morning. Who would want there kids to be apart of this madness? Target employees didn't like the fact that Target was opening their doors at midnight this year because it meant less time with their families. The employees would have had to be at work by 11p.m instead of 4a.m when the doors would open at 5a.m like previous years. Here is an article about an employee who got a petition together to try to stop Target doors from opening at midnight.
ReplyDeletehttp://foxnewsinsider.com/2011/11/22/target-employee-starts-petition-to-fight-back-against-opening-stores-at-midnight-on-black-friday/
Seriously Black Friday is a nightmare thanksgiving is no longer a holiday its all about " Black Friday " Instead of spending time with your family , you instead want to elbow someone in the face for a TV , that typically may not be everyone but its sad to see that thanksgiving has some competition named Black Friday and Cyber Monday
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw those commercials I was also pretty much getting sick of them. One in particular was marketing target and getting ready for black friday. It concerned a blonde woman who was working out with target products to get the best deals, I realized it was an old commercial. I had seen that same commercial last year and I think they just re edited it to change the time target was starting. It seems like they are also getting a little lazy as well as repetitive.
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