Time to rethink Christmas marketing

摘要

I know that by the time you read this, Christmas will have come and gone, and I hope you had a good one. And I wish I did too. But I rarely do. The primary reason for this is my annual frustration at the way in which the concept of marketing is applied in the build-up to Christmas. Retail marketing in particular begins way too early and overwhelms every other aspect of Christmas that either is, or should be, important to us. Irrespective of the religious celebration that is key to many people (although certainly not all), it is a season during which family, community, love, care, support and joy are all key factors and none of them require some idiot yelling at us about "prices", "cheapest" and "discounts" during November, let alone in the closer lead up to Christmas.