Imagine if we didnt celebrate birthdays, mothers & fathers days, July 4ths, Easter, etc, a lot of companies would even cease to exist. Even further than that, there's SO many little niche things besides holidays popularized to make money, (like certain entertainment & certain foods) when we scale back from getting them "in these down recessionary times" (omg please end) it leaves some companies really feeling the pinch. That day in school when girlies would spread all their V Day gifts that they got from different guys on their desks, and had that I'm Special Everybody Loves Me entitlement grin on their faces was when bitterness set in and I stopped celebrating it
Ya'll are a bunch of LOSERS if you only give your significant other something on VALENTINE'S DAY. Mrs. SwoLy gets flowers every now and then. I don't need valentine's day to get her something but she DID get a hear-shaped turtles chocolates box and the PRO FLOWERS special. I'd be darn if I was to come home and she would say "you know what? A bunch of people got something at work, but I got nothing. " I am one step ahead of that. Don't let that happen to you. Give your woman something, whether small or large that's what she said and she'll be happy. Or just tell her "I love you" without being all mushy about it. Funny story, though, one of the ladies where she works says to her: "Hey! You got that special from the radio! The Pro Flowers special!" Mrs. SwoLy got a kick out of it... and I was a bit embarrassed. I am going to ask Pro Flowers to change their box... the nerve of them... advertising this everywhere... Clean up after your buddy and ask him to leave before your girlfriend gets home, yo!
I wrote this piece a couple of years ago to explain why you need to celebrate Valentine's day and spend spend spend.. [rquoter] VD I sent the woman I was dating an email this day a year ago with that heading and she wasn't amused. Of course we ended up breaking up not too long after but I don't believe that the "V"alentine's "D"ay email I sent her had anything to do with that, although I did up getting this really bad rash over most of my torso the last time I visited her. Its Valentine's Day again a day that many anti-romantics like me and other assorted lonely hearts look upon with about as much fondness as radical Muslims at Danish cartoons. It seems like the mass market has determined to make those of us without a honey feel like we're invisible while guilting those with one into spending on more and more elaborate gifts. I've been listening to some of the commercials focussed on the feast day of St. Valentine and its almost shameless the amount of guilt and manipulation being heaped on hapless lovers, such things as "Don't dissapoint that someone special with candy, buy our beautiful diamond and gold heart shaped pendant on sale for $200 to show her you care." much of this with the not so subtle subtext that if you don't she'll dump your fat ass and you'll be a loser spending your weekend nights watching Spike TV. (Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that.) I guess in a capitalistic consumer society its inevitable that the expression of love would become inextricably bound with unnecessary spending since the celebration of pretty much everything is. Further this need not be a bad thing considering how much revenue hard working florists, jewelers, chocalatiers and people giving horse and carriage rides are making off of the consumerist celebration of an intangible emotion. Much as toy retailers stand to make almost all of their income during that greatest of all consumerist holidays "X-Mas" I wonder how often does the hard up chocalatier, patiently dipping bits of nougat and strawberries into chocalate look forward to Valentines Day to rescue him from a down year. I can imagine him saying to himself as he meticulously arranges his wares into red heart shaped boxes, "My margins are way down since the costs of cocoa butter is up 30% and I'm getting killed by all that cheap foreign candy. There better be alot of people in love on Valentines Day or else my kids aren't going to be able to get braces this year." That's an image that should thaw even the coldest heart. So for all of you out there fortunate enough to have someone to love and be loved hold them tight and don't forget to spend spend spend. For all of you who don't well get going and find yourself a love. Remember the love based sector of our economy is depending on you to pump your hard earned dollars into sweets, flowers, baubles and all the rest that comes with quantifying your love by racking up a huge credit card bill. Dare I say it. If you don't show your love through conspicuous consumption then the terrorists win.. I doubt that Osama Bin Ladin is buying his lady love a box of Godiva chocalates, a heart shaped three diamond pendant or a dozen long stem roses with no thorns. As for this loveless soul I will be celebrating the Feast Day of St. Valentines with power tools and my laptop. (Before you jump to conclusions, I'll be working on my house and getting caught up with work.)[/rquoter]
Well, I think it's a given that marketers will try to exploit any possible occasion to sell products. People in the advertising industry are pimps and whores, only they peddle a different product. I think the deeper problem isn't the marketers, but those who make their marketing successful. If guys are buying the jewelry from the Jared ads on tv, or ordering the flower packages advertised on sports radio, it's because they're not creative/proactive enough to come up with a personal expression of how they feel about their significant other. I made my girlfriend a letterbox. Carved/sanded the pieces myself, painted a sketch from her favorite artist on it, and shellacked it to give it a nice classy finish. She can use it to store the weekly love letters I send her. It's a highly personal gift, and one that I would've eventually made for another occasion, but Valentine's Day provided a great prompt to go ahead and make it. I guess what I'm rounding around to saying is, Valentine's Day wouldn't seem so dumb if people used it as an occasion to challenge themselves to REALLY show the person how much they care. It's really easy to blame marketers/advertisers/capitalism, but those quasi-Marxist grumblings lose sight of the fact that the economy is nothing more than a performed behavior that consumers are ultimately responsible for. If guys didn't just default to whatever was easiest, then advertisers wouldn't be hocking their wares every Valentine's Day. I think a holiday that celebrates love is a wonderful thing. Who wouldn't want an excuse to show their significant other how much they mean to them? (And that doesn't have to be with flowers or cards, I don't think there's any one right way to show a person you care.) The reason Valentine's Day seems so cheesey has more to do with the mediocrity of most relationships than it does with anything else.
I take it you haven't "gone to town" before? "What brought me here? What brings anyone anywhere? Why do men build bridges? Why are there jets? I was hoping to have sex tonight." - Jack Donaghy
I thought about it and I've only spent Valentine's with a girlfriend once. That was about ten years ago. Last year I basically threw a hail mary on an old flame. Ticket to Virginia, tickets to an opera, dinner cruise on the bay, all that. Unfortunately it didn't work out. Not trying to be Debbie Downer, just reminded me.
Agree. Could also be the very act of having a Valentines Day on a calender that everyone knows about almost makes it obligation rather than a true show of care. OR, it works better when the act of appreciation applies to both sides, not all one-sided. Cuz face it V Day is Vagina-tines Day. Steak & BJ Day is one of the best creations of the past decade cuz of that. Where Valentines Day DOES come in handy is for the poor lonely single ladies feeling the left-out blues...some good rebound chances there
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hmm...just finished watching a movie....food is pretty digested now....time for some nookie with my girl.
