Who Wants To Boycott The State Fair? And Some TV Shows?
by John Weckerle
Well, at least one of us is thinking about it. The issue? The incredibly irritating television commercial promoting the event.
The commercial – the theme of which is that the State Fair is like all the holidays rolled into one – features a number of people dressed in costumes representing holidays, dancing (poorly) to the Christmas song “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.”
I, for one, have been sick to death for years of the exploitation of Christmas and the cynical trend of commercial interests’ shoving one of our best holidays into our faces as much as four months in advance. I can understand the hobby stores getting things out early – it takes time to make things for Christmas, especially if you make a lot of presents (which I do, although I’m committed to a last-minute dash most years). But this incessant barrage of Christmas paraphernalia that begins in late August and persists through December is, to my mind, offensive.
I can remember, very faintly, when Charles Schultz first lamented the commercialization of Christmas in A Charlie Brown Christmas, back in 1965. We watched that show every year for decades to follow. Okay, it was bad back then, but if Schultz had seen what it’s like today, he might just have given Charlie Brown an Uzi and had him waste a K-Mart (although, now that I think of it, I don’t remember there having been any K-Marts in 1965). Admittedly, that’s a little over the top, but if people in 1965 thought Christmas was being exploited then, they hadn’t seen anything yet.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually get into November without being assaulted with an increasingly persistent voice trying to use Christmas to sell us something – and more and more often, something that has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday? Wouldn’t it be grand if we could just let the Christmas season happen more or less around Christmas – and actually have the season be about Christmas?
So maybe I’ll give the Fair a miss this year. And maybe I’ll give some other businesses a miss this Fall, too – specifically, those using Christmas as a promotional tool before Halloween has come and gone. So how about this, fellow businesspeople: What say we take a page from Orson Welles in the old Paul Masson commercials, and sell no holiday before its time?
2 Responses “Who Wants To Boycott The State Fair? And Some TV Shows?”
I’m with you on this one ~ my kind of snark all the way. “Sell no holiday before its time” indeed ~ prime bumper sticker material. On a tee with a picture of Charlie Brown (w/ or w/o Uzi)
I’ll buy the argument and the tee.