Valentines Day. Christmas. Birthdays. These are all excuses to be materialistic fabricated by very talented marketing. It’s interesting how it is a social norm to buy something for someone on any one of these days
– Roses or stuffed teddy bears for your significant other on Valentine’s Day
– A gift for every close family and friend for Christmas and maybe even a Christmas Stocking to go along with your gift
– A cake for someone’s birthday along with some kind of personalized meaningful gift
Companies make big bucks from these fabrications.
If you want to buy roses on Valentine’s Day you should be prepared to pay double or even triple of the regular price of a rose, but why do you have to get flowers on Valentines? Why is there such a high demand for this one day?
Christmas is that time of year where you are too broke after buying everyone gifts. Take a step back. Realize that Christmas is a Christian holiday that is to celebrate a savior being born into the world. In fact, if you wanted to practice a gift giving holiday we should call it Hanukah, not Christmas. During Hanukah, you have to give a gift to close people in your life for seven days straight.
Birthdays are supposed to be a celebration of how strong your mother was bringing you into this world.
It’s just interesting to take a step back and realize that if everyone consumed like us (in the North American context) that we wouldn’t be able to sustain all of our consumerism. I guess all I’m trying to say is that if you are really close with friends, family or a significant other, you should not need any holiday or excuse to act differently as a consumer. They are special every single day. Super corny, but how much less waste would the world have if you didn’t get all of your Christmas presents last Christmas? Seriously – do you even remember everything you got for Christmas? Do you still use everything you got from your birthday? These Fabricated Materialism days are great for encouraging unnecessary consumption that will most likely end up in a landfill.
For this reason, I don’t give gifts unless I see something practical that someone I know needs.
I definitely agree with your points, and think they raise difficult questions for those of us engaged in the business world. I left these questions on Dragana’s recent blog post too, but I’ll leave them here as well because I think they’re really important to consider especially in light of the concerns you raise.
Do you think that the ultimate goal of any publicly-held company (to maximize profits for shareholders) is really compatible with sustainability? Maximizing profits usually means selling as much as possible, and in a world with limited resources, this seems to conflict with sustainability goals. Do you think the kind of trends you’ve been learning about in this course can help overcome this deep conflict, helping to integrate business and sustainability, or will sustainability remain just a means to the end of profitability? Is there really a place for sustainability in a business school, or in business in general?
LOL Nice Post Verionica!
PREACH IT, aint that the truth. It’s so crazy how backwards our society is, we preach to want change and help sustain our environment, then the next minute we are hitting people down in the aisles of black friday to get that last SONY DVD on sale. I know you think that these holidays should not be considered whatsoever, but I think they are integral to our culture, of bringing people together. Without those days, some people might forget to appreciate their loved ones, or be happy that you are growing older, or there might not be an event to bring entire families together like Christmas does it.
I see your point, but these holidays signify so much more. I think there should be awareness spread though talking about the issues of not purchasing presents for these holidays, but talking about HOW MUCH people buy.
There should be a line drawn where receiving one present for xmas or birthday, to where I have friends who receive up o $2500 worth of stuff on christmas, which is ridiculous. Purchasing one gift per person seems enough, going excessive and buying thousands of dollars of presents on these holidays is excessive as buying one gift already fulfils it’s social purpose.
Just my two cents on the topic 😛
-Kelly
Hey all,
I want to begin by supporting your strong points Veronica and I can’t tell you how much I agree with your view and wished it was a movement. However, it seems as though our purpose in this world is to earn money and in turn consume things. The problem is that we can’t suddenly change head over heels and go back to living with less. I can assure you that there aren’t many individuals that are ready to go back in time and give up many of the things they have or even sacrificing just the possibility of acquiring such wealth. Also if this system wasn’t in place there wouldn’t be an incentive for companies to create and develop better products. But do we need better products? However, during one of my classes a friend of mine opened my eyes and the key to happiness is to bring others happiness and one way to do so is to buy things that those individuals really want.
Now with the celebrations themselves I agree they are fabrications and shouldn’t really exist. Why should one day be any more special than the rest. Why can’t we love celebrate and get together with family and friends on any given day? That’s why I have kept my birthday a secret as I do not celebrate it like most. For me it’s a day of personal reflection what I’ve been able to accomplish what I still need to work on as well as special moments. I also take the time to thank those that have played an important role in my life.
My reply to Noah is as follows: There is definitely a place for sustainability in business. As we did touch on in class it will be obligatory for companies to align their goals with sustainability. This will be do to scarcity of raw materials as well as new regulations. There is a lot of potential cost savings and efficiency gains associated with sustainability. Thus, it is in a business’s best interest to align their goals with sustainability earlier rather than later. You are right about corporations aiming to increase profits but one day they will all need to have cradle to cradle as a business model.
Kelly my dear please refer to my second paragraph, also what would bring you the greatest amount of happiness a diamond ring or a ring pop? A house or a hut? A trip to Jericho beach or a trip to the British Virgin Islands? It’s all about being able to consume things without them having a negative impact on the world we love. I know right now it is not the case but I pray everyday that we approach this goal sooner rather than later.
This is the definitely the mentality I have throughout the year. I find it absorb when people are upset at not receiving gifts, or extravagant gifts, at specific times of the year. And on the flip side, when I get my girlfriend something nice out of the blue, I get the response “What did you do wrong?” as if buying someone you care about a present when it’s not a holiday is so odd that it must be to compensate for doing something bad. What a terribly materialistic lens we see the world through. Though it may be difficult to convince North Americans to stop desiring gifts on Christmas, maybe we can fight fire with fire. I propose an anti-materialsm movement where instead of buying someone a useless gift for the sake of getting them a gift, we instead opt to do something nice for them that reduces the damage of materialism, such as donate to a tree-planting organization in their name, help them plant a garden (could even be a food garden), or something of the sorts. This way at least if we can’t reduce materialism, we can fight against it by doing carbon-negative actions.
I guess the problem here is not really how much you buy for people you love. If we spread our presents over the year, the consumption might be the same.
It is, I guess, more likely a problem of mass production and mass transportation during a short period of time. That creates seasonal jobs instead of jobs for all-year and thus diminishes the quality of life.
What about flowers? Mass production for one day? And then? What happens to the fields and to the people?
Nice opinion shared.
I feel exactly the same way. Even though I try my best to abstain getting gifts for the sake of keeping in line with North American social norms, it is easier said that done. As a student hoping to major in marketing I (sometimes) despise marketing for doing such a good job at selling “fabricated materialism”. It’s amazing how easy it is to get sucked into this culture of consumerism. Coming from Colombia, I was raised with the idea that Christmas was only about family and religion- and presents were the cherry on top. So when I moved here, I was so confused when people asked me if I had finished my Christmas shopping? ! So yes, unfortunately I’ve given in into the idea of Christmas shopping but I would like to think that I’m becoming a savvy and conscious shopper. For one, I try to give people “experience gifts” such as a manicure or a yoga membership. I know from consumer behavior that these types of gifts would have a more lasting effect on their happiness so it is a win-win situation for them and for me (and for the planet too).
It’s sad to know that in North America, we spend $450 Billion during the month of December. I really hope that next year more cities jump on the same wagon as the city of Vancouver to remind people of the true spirit in Christmas.
Ps: And don’t get me started on Easter and Valentine’s days. I’ve been here for 10 years and luckily I haven’t fallen into the trap of buying copious amount of chocolate for these events. Oh and fun fact- in japan, they have “White Day” which is one month after V-day (fabricated by the chocolate industry to sell more chocolate)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/keithlevy/2011/12/20/the-christmas-conspiracy-spending-less-giving-more/