More Than Hallmark
Hallmark Holiday??
I know you were expecting a sweet Valentine’s message last week but I was distracted……
Valentines by the numbers:
Consumer spending: 25.8 Bn USD
Clothing: 3 Bn USD (lots of sexy outfits) Jewelry: 6.4 Bn USD (BLING)
Evening out: (no wonder restaurants LOVE this day) 4.9 Bn
How the rest was spent:
40% on Cards – 37% on Flowers (250 million stems of flowers globally—1/3 roses 1/3 tulips 1/3 the rest. Most come from Kenya, Columbia and the Netherlands
Who is the recipient:
US consumers expecting a gift—- 52% That percentage could easily win a Presidential election ---
57% of all consumers buy, give, and receive candy
190 million cards and that doesn’t count the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange
A little history
It is truly global with most countries having some type of event to celebrate – LOVE.
First Valentine’s was sent in the 15th century
Like many holidays it has its roots in an ancient Pagan festival. This was a fertility festival----You probably figured that out yourself. ---- Love a fertility event
You get the idea —-we spend a lot on Valentine’s Day.
I follow baseball but not as closely as I once did. However, I am always struck with this feeling —— when a team wins a game by many runs — a score of 15-2 as an example and then loses the next day 1-0 —- I think, why could they not spread those runs out in a more economical fashion so to help win the close games instead of squandering all those unneeded runs??...
I get the same feeling when I consider all of these Valentine’s Day numbers. With this intense interest in love on San Valentino - why can’t we spread all that extra love out over the rest of the year?
Don’t get me wrong I am enough of a romantic to believe that making the effort to show someone how much you love them is a good idea. I just believe we are squandering a lot of this effort for only one day. You don’t have to spend millions to show love. You can just say it. Showering the one you love with gifts on one day does not give you a pass for all the others. Can’t we spread all of that money and effort over a longer period and to a broader group. Everyone could use a little love (well maybe not Putin)
The sad news is that it takes a massive marketing effort to get us to recognize the importance of love when it would be better to practice it every day. We cannot use the ONE to assuage our gilt for being such jerks the rest of the year.
There are so many ways that we could demonstrate love on other days. It would be amazing if we could remember to give just a little of this effort to those that need love but are not known to us.
The world is replete in crisis, wars and other amazingly horrible human produced challenges. Yet we are able to muster enough desire to look away from ourselves only on one day??. Spending the equivalent of the GDP of Jamaica (or you pick any other small country) on gifts and flowers, but cannot seem to translate that desire to show love in a broader and more consistent fashion.
I am not trying to throw cold water on Valentine’s Day. To the contrary I would like to see us support a Valentine’s Day every day in the form of giving to others. The world is a dangerous place but not without solutions. If we could spend more on love and less on wealth and power this might be a far more loving planet.
Valentine’s day, rather than a Hallmark holiday, could be a demonstration of what solutions are possible with cooperation, compromise and yes – love. Can we focus on spreading “the runs we scored” on Valentin’s Day over more days? Helping to promote the probable, the possible, the potential and the lovely.
Maybe we will receive an extra kiss on the cheek or if lucky – much more.