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The Controversy Over Christmas Advertisements

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IS IT BENEFIICIAL TO AIR CHRISTMAS ADS BEFORE DECEMBER? It seems that Christmas advertising has moved its way further up the calendar each year. Some people love the idea of Christmas in July, while others look at it as a marketing scam. I am going to talk about the history, benefits, and believers, as well as those who do not really care for the fad of Christmas advertising before Christmas. Dating back to November 1885, Christmas advertisements were already peeking out. Within the next thirty years, the season of Christmas advertising had moved up the calendar to the last week of October. Telegraphs would read “This may seem a little premature to you – but it really is NOT – for you do not have many days left in which …show more content…

This form of advertising earlier and earlier is known as “Christmas creep” and it has not always been so popular. The folks from Telegraph have a quote from British shopkeepers saying there was a “tendency to introduce Father Christmas too early in the season” dated in October 1954. In 1968, Labor Day was the earliest record to kick off to the Christmas season (Pinsker, 2014). Even though it seems the Christmas creep is solely a marketing scheme, it works. Consumers state they do not mind that Christmas advertising begins in September, and most are thankful that they have those reminders as to how close the holiday really is. “Almost half of Americans start shopping for the holidays before Halloween” (Atlantic, 2014). This method of shopping early for gifts, especially when buying for multiple people, is very useful in that it helps with budgeting money and checking each person off ones list. Speaking of budgeting, retailers love having a …show more content…

The main events that steer people away from Christmas shopping in stores would be due to the fact that the staffing in some ambitious stores wears Santa hats or elf ears. Also, according to Joe Pinsker of the Atlantic, “Christmas ads, and their timing, probably are fretted about because of how much is riding on them economically.” He states that toward the end of December is the most efficient and profitable time due to Christmas shopping (Atlantic,

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