Of all the holidays, Halloween is my favourite. Actually it’s not, but it’s up there in some upper echelon of holidaydom. Actually considering the fact that summer holidays aren’t really marketed, save for pushing the alcohol cottage lifestyle ads, Halloween is the first real marketed holiday of latter half of the year.
Coors Light Summer ad circa 1992
How Summer is marketed towards you.
I look at holidays as a split group, you have the summer holidays which are pretty awesome but inherently don’t represent anything asides from patriotism, blowing part of the country up, and getting drunk. Fall and winter holidays, on the other hand, have some supernatural ascribed meaning which is facilitated through advertising and the pushing of products.
Looking at Thanksgiving, the food industry, in a fairly low-key way, markets the shit out of food products (namely turkey) and the notions of family and homeliness. It’s an emotionally warm holiday.
Fast forwarding a bit, and out of chronological order I might add, Christmas is another warm holiday. We’re bombarded with images of Santa Claus and his reindeer landing on roofs and delivery toys and such. Products are sold under the guise of the big red guy accomplishing this task. It’s coupled, again, with the notion of family togetherness. Rumour has it Coke invented the modern red and white interpretation of Santa; the power of marketing at play…
But enough about these other holidays, we’re here to discuss – actually, I’m here to rant and you’re here to read there’s no two-way street in that department. Random narrative tangents aside, I’m surprised an apt marketer hasn’t fully grasped the potential of Halloween. I feel as though it is inevitably coming, and will emerge as another heavily marketed holiday. Think about it, you target the kids on getting food and random crap by going door-to-door. MORE IMPORTANTLY, you can target the adults getting drunk by offering new, seasonal ways to enjoy their drunkenness.
Imagine Halloween inspired liquor: pumpkin spice vodka (or in my case, Whiskey), Ghostly orange beer, stuff like that. It just seems like a great idea for an apt marketer to apply. Make Halloween earn from adults through specialized seasonal goods.
Anyway as it stands my responsibilities, like a crested wave, have ended for this week – the peak has passed. As such, I plan on enjoying my Halloween weekend and remembering none of it… That is until I get the inevitable call invoking my designated driver responsibilities. I do hope to get out this year, especially after the derailed plans of last year – courtesy of a lass who systematically ended up ruining most things I did.
Cheers and have a Happy Halloween,
Potts.
Potts.
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