{"id":234,"date":"2014-11-14T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2014\/11\/14\/christmas-in-september\/"},"modified":"2018-07-18T21:28:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T21:28:53","slug":"christmas-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2014\/11\/14\/christmas-in-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.merrystockings.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Santa-pumpkin.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Thanksgiving is not yet here and I\u2019m already thinking of Christmas.&nbsp; And I\u2019m Jewish.&nbsp; How does that work? The term in the industry is \u201cChristmas creep,\u201d which simply means that holiday advertising occurs earlier and earlier each year.&nbsp; Knowing that consumers have negative feelings towards this early onslaught, savvy advertisers have begun to use \u201cmeta-marketing\u201d tactics (ads about ads) to weasel their way into our brains as early as September.&nbsp;&nbsp; Take for example Kmart\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=w_YQRRd8uVg\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: blue\">This is not a Christmas Commercial<\/span><\/a><span><\/span><span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/\"><\/a>\u201d which appeared soon after Labor Day this year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I like to blame evil corporations as much as the next guy, but a little research sheds light on our complicity in this trend. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinkwithgoogle.com\/articles\/2014-holiday-shopper-research-shopping-never-sleeps.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: blue\">Holiday Shopper\u2019s Intentions Survey<\/span> <\/a>commissioned by Google finds that \u201cmore than half of consumers surveyed said they\u2019ll start their [consumer] research before Thanksgiving,\u201d and the <a href=\"https:\/\/nrf.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Documents\/NRF_Holiday_Survival_Kit_2013_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: blue\">National Retail Federation<\/span><\/a> reports that <span style=\"background: white\">40% of Americans begin their holiday shopping before Halloween<\/span>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Anti-materialist sentiments aside, is this a trend worth resisting or could there be a benefit to extending the holiday shopping season? Some economists point out that reliance on year-end sales makes for a more turbulent economy with lots of wasteful spending. &nbsp;In his paper <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.bearing-consulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Waldfogel.-.Deadweight.Loss_.of_.Christmas.pdf\"><span style=\"background-color: white\"><span style=\"color: blue\"><span><\/span>The Deadweight Loss of Christmas<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: black\"><\/span><\/a>, economist Joel Waldfogel asserts that one-third of the items purchased for others are not wanted, and that money or gift cards are (big surprise here) the most efficient form of gift giving. While this certainly helps explain my attic, it also takes the gift out of the giving.<\/p>\n<p>This year I make peace with the early advertising. &nbsp;And next year, if I see a good present in September, I&#8217;m going to buy it for that special loved one. &nbsp;It may not only make for a less harried holiday season, but a smoother and more efficient economy too.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanksgiving is not yet here and I\u2019m already thinking of Christmas.&nbsp; And I\u2019m Jewish.&nbsp; How does that work? The term in the industry is \u201cChristmas creep,\u201d which simply means that holiday advertising occurs earlier and earlier each year.&nbsp; Knowing that <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2014\/11\/14\/christmas-in-september\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Christmas in September<\/span><span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}