Commercializing Love, My Valentine

I have always found it funny that kids give out Valentine’s Day cards. The commercial holiday about saying I love you to your significant other quickly became a marketing tool for selling cards and candy to even kids.  And parents fell for it, whole-heartedly!  What we do in the name of LOVE.

Valentine’s greetings in written form started in the 1400’s. Valentine’s Day is not just celebrated in the United States but also in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, France and Australia.  All Valentine’s wishes were hand-written until the 1900’s when printing technology had developed. From then on, cards were printed.  Valentine’s Day sends the second largest volume of cards of any holiday, right behind Christmas.

One of the most amazing facts around the holiday in the USA is that 58 million pounds of chocolate candy are sold every Valentine’s Day week. That's a great volume of sugar making for one hyper nation!  145 million Valentine’s Day cards are bought, exchanged and mailed each year.  As of 2018, sales for jewelry are $4.7 Billion and $2 Billion on flowers. Total spend for Valentine’s Day holiday is $19.6 Billion per the National Retail Federation.  What a great deal of expense to express an emotion of LOVE. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to simply say “I love you?”

I worked in a Lingerie department years ago. Leading up to Valentine’s Day, men flocked to the department.  They all were looking for something red or an intimate sexy item.  None of them seemed to have a clue of what size their wives wore.  The cell phone images some had of their wives revealed a bad estimate on their parts.  And head shots guys are not helpful in estimating sizes for women's clothing!   We were routinely asked, based on OUR body type, what size they should buy.

This is a hard call for anyone in sales, especially when it is a gift from a husband to his wife. None of us wanted to start a World War in a home.  Hence, we usually took the same approach, suggest they estimate with a teeny bit of direction and go with the smaller of the two sizes so as to make certain all is kosher on the home front!

It was rather amusing how many of the gifts seemed to be purchased for themselves. Many men are bold shoppers and made no secret of it either. We really did not need to hear this or ANY particulars!  I am certain their significant others did not want us to as well as many were frequent shoppers with us which is why they were told to come there.

Some men brought their children in shopping with them into the lingerie department. Valentine's shopping for the sole purpose of buying pajamas or a nightgown is one thing but sexy items is another. And thong undies all lace is not something kids want to see!  Some purchases and fathers checking out items for their mommies seemed abit much for the kiddies!  To make it even more uncomfortable, some men would ask their children to help pick out item choices and it was real clear the children were not happy-campers picking out mommy’s sexy outfits or undies!

Regarding children, I still find it comical that children in grade school have to buy cute paper cards and hand them out to all their classmates. Well actually, if their parents work, which most do these days, their parents have to go pick out and buy Valentine’s cards for the kids to take to school. Many of the cards taken to school don’t even have the names of the kids in the class on the envelopes anymore, if they are placed in there. The kids find it as much of a hassle as the parents. It has become the "Total No Name Game", their first experience at "Speed Dating" and "Flash Friends." What happened to giving the cutest ones in the box to your best friends? At least keep that tradition, poor kids.

Can you believe that the kids at school are giving cards with hearts on them to the classmates they ignore, the ones they taunt and tease, and even worse yet, the ones they bully?  Wouldn’t a card saying I am sorry or I will stop be more loving and appropriate?

What’s more, the child that is harassed by other students is made to give an I LOVE you Valentine’s Day card to other kids that make his life a living hell.   What’s normal about that?  Doesn’t that give a bully another chance to knock him in the head as he walks by? How about a card that says Good luck finding true LOVE with an attitude like yours? That seems like a better card to the bullies in the class. And the mean girls, why can't the card's back say "Get out of the Dark Side."

One year I went through some of my grand-kids cards post-Valentine’s Day. Wow, you can deduct a few things looking through them. First, it’s easy to see which parents bought them last year on clearance, the characters are passé!  You have the cards with the children who write sweet little words on the back with their signature, so darling, so few.  There is that other group that at least write their name so you know who it’s from. The other group is  the lazy group, nothing there, just a blank back. No name, no shame. Parents are AOL and the kid doesn’t care about the dang cards either.  They probably feel like me about the whole card thing and are only interested in the candy at the Valentine’s Day party.

The cards manufactured for children say some real stupid things. Why can't they come up with original material after all these years? It is bad when the kids tell you that too!  The lines are right up there with the Conversation Hearts but the cards aren’t edible, unfortunately. You would be real popular in class if they were.  They’d hold that box of hearts while eating them a whole lot longer than they are ever going to hold that paper card. It’ll be pitched inside of 24 hours. But they will feel loved by all their classmates for having gotten them, right?

This tradition with passing out cards in schools for Valentine’s began in the 1930’s when cards became Mass produced. It is a waste of money for the children living in poverty and feel they have to conform. Cut back on eating to buy Valentine's, somewhere to somebody that makes sense.   Do kids in school really care about reading a whole bunch of cards? It’s hard enough to get them to read their text books.

Perhaps this is why some areas are banning the celebration of Valentine's in schools. They feel the time spent is unnecessary, in states like Florida.  If it is deemed essential and American because of the message, even to children, let’s start insisting employers give employees time off of work to celebrate too. At least adults are old enough to know what love is.

And so it goes, the money we spend for Valentine's Day, for LOVE.

How Marketing 101 dictates our actions. If you look up the definition of LOVE anywhere, in the dictionary, encyclopedia or just google it, nowhere does it mention buying candy, flowers, jewelry, or sending cards. It’s just possible Valentine’s Day is sending the wrong message and that it isn’t even about the color red or a heart shape. It is entirely possible showing

LOVE is as simple as the little things you do for those that are the most important in your life even more so than what you buy and what you say. Real LOVE doesn’t have a price tag but is sweet and priceless!

I don’t despise Valentine’s Day, I have confectionery hearts in my home too!  Happy Valentine's Day to you & yours! 

Guest Commentary: Adel de Meyer: Social Media Personal Attacks - Is this Productive?

Adel de Meyer

I came to know Adel de Meyer through social media over a year ago via Twitter.  To say I was immediately impressed is an understatement. She has an enigmatic persona that comes across quite rapidly. My background, dual major in Psychology and Communications, and then moving into a career in sales, marketing and social media, Adel’s natural ability was obvious to me!

As our relationship grew, I began to learn about her background. You can read in depth about Adel on her website. My purpose is simply to give you a short platform to preface her comments below. She recently wrote a brief commentary that is much needed in these days of self-branding and promoting good-will to each other and positive messaging. No matter how we deliver our message, there are always those that will misconstrue it. Perception is many folks reality; however, objectivity is needed also to truly understand messaging.  I believe Adel has mastered the art of understanding both her clients and her audience quite well in conveying both, who they are and what they have to say.  Likewise, when it comes to herself, she also is awesome at projecting both. 

Adel now calls Brisbane, Australia home, having been born in South Africa.

Her short title, believe it or not, is: Social Media Marketing Specialist, Speaker and Trainer and Hootsuite Solution Partner, but so much more! A beautiful blonde with a vibrant spirit who challenges all of us to dig deep, tap into our passion, bring it forth and make our mark!

So for the woman born on Christmas day, in her own words,

changes are called for: 

Making a few changes - Starting the new year off fresh - I am who I am - I look the way I look - I talk the way I talk - Those who don't like me for who and what I am won't be missed. Those that are negative and always judge others or me, gossip and are nasty will be removed from my profiles - Nothing personal, I just don't need your negative energy dragging me down.

I like to take selfies, I like silly jokes, I have a weird sense of humor and yes sorry that I have long blonde hair and full lips and you might not -

I'm not going to go through my life feeling guilty or hating myself because it might offend someone else that doesn't have it or can't make a beautiful photo. You might have other features or abilities that I don't have and would love to. I have many other things that I hate about myself, like my bad skin and being overweight o and my big nose but I don't go around putting girls that look much better and prettier than me down and get jealous if they post a sexy selfie - I say Good for You Girl, Rock it!

   

Today I want to say, stop judging and being nasty to others - you never know how they might feel about themselves or their lives. Let others express themselves anyway they please, and if you don't like their silly selfies or jokes or breakfast photos - you know what hide or remove them and move on. You really gain nothing by putting others down - Words cut deeper than knives. A knife can be pulled out, words are embedded into our souls!!!

Too many people are 'Keyboard Warriors' behind this powerful tool called 'Social Media'

I did request her permission to share these comments as I think it is something we should all contemplate before judging.  Here are a few additional remarks she made to those in her inner circle that responded to her post:

There are some that are pretty, some that are clever, some that are rich and some that have it all. Everyone should just allow everyone their little piece of sunshine in this world and stop being jealous. Yes, jealousy in moderation is a good thing but keep it to yourself. Don't go and put others down or always spit out your comments online and criticize everything others do. 

I wish for many things that others have that I see online but I don't go and gossip or put up status updates 'talking indirectly' to those and say how terrible their photos,selfies,tweets,lives or families are. 

Social media can sometimes be a nasty dirty place.  I've seen it more and more this year.

I find it fascinating this is written by someone so young, so gorgeous and yet so insightful and not in a context of a defensive posture. This is also a well-versed woman with a background in modeling, PR, media spotlight, and knowledge about the use of social media and its positive and negative impacts. 

Her words should and do have impact.  Many look and come to her for advice and guidance, personally and professionally, which is why I felt this blog was important to post.  I am proud of her as a woman, friend and proven professional.

Please take the time to review and share her comments.  When you buy a product, you buy it based on many factors. Selfies reflect more than just a look, just like a cover of a book, it is a cover, a reflection but not the entire piece of work.

You can reach Adel at:

Adeldemeyer.com

Twitter: @adeldmeyer

Instagram: @adeldemeyer

Facebook: www.facebook.com/adeldmeyer