Tis The Season

As the song says: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. Mind you it was beginning to look like Christmas a long time ago. The shops seem to be putting up decorations earlier and earlier, and it isn’t out of the goodness of their hearts they want to bring Christmas joy to everyone.

No – it’s all about marketing the heck out of another festive occasion to get sales sales sales!

It’s about bombarding you with seasonal adverts, catalogues and in-store displays, and boy do these work! We all know the financial stresses put on families during the festive season due to the pressure to buy buy buy!

To realise just how effective these marketing techniques are let’s take a look at Halloween…

Halloween isn’t an Australian tradition, it’s American, but the Aussie stores have hopped on the band wagon, latching on to a new cash cow, and through heavy promotion are changing the actual consciousness of Australians into celebrating Halloween and therefore spending on it.

How could you not, we are all promoted of it by the retailers, and children are particularly influenced by candy (yep we’ll be using the American term soon) and chocolate. Children now will grow up with this American tradition being an Australian one that they themselves grew up with, and so will their kids and so on it goes. As they say get them young.

And what is it that we feel pressured to buy? Useful or healthy items? Nope, unhealthy sweets and a load of rubbishy plastic decorations and costumes that all contribute to our planets ever growing waste problem.

Oh well, the mad rush of Christmas will be over soon and the shops will start selling hot cross buns before you know it.

Mind you we mustn’t forget buying more stuff for Australia Day; Valentines Day; Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.