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Sex sells. Brands are banking on the idea that heartbreak is no different.
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The brand seems to focus on the ultimate, relatable situation: a relationship gone awry. Cue marketing promotions for former bases.
First, we’d like to introduce four new stories. atlantic:
bad romance branding
If you have recently failed in love, there is no need to worry. Brands are waiting with surreal promotional stunts for you.
Want to send a farewell pizza to your loved one? Pizza Hut has you covered. Looking for free dumplings? Prove you got dumped by texting PF Chang. Last year, Topo Chico ran a campaign where customers sent scorpions to their ex-lovers. Recently, Yuan-centered stunts have been seen everywhere.Startups and consumer brands are the worst offenders, but others are getting in on the action: New York City give advice“Don’t email your ex. Email the mayor.” The San Antonio Zoo feeds zoo animals with rats and cockroaches named after your ex, and animal shelters feed rats and cockroaches named after your ex. We neuter and neuter the pets named after us.
Valentine’s Day has long been derided as a paragon of over-consumerism. Consumers are expected to spend a record $14.2 billion on loved ones this year, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Serious ads trying to sell flowers, jewelry, and chocolate have been around for decades, and they’re not going anywhere. But now, brands have successfully monetized the good parts and are standing by to commercialize the difficulties of dating.
People who are hungry for revenge, or at least have plausible bad feelings toward their ex-lovers, represent consumers with spending power. An NRF study found that about 55 percent of Valentine’s Day spending is on a loved one, while the other half is on friends, family, pets, and more. Many people who concentrate their spending in the second category are likely to be single. As a blog post last year on the Chamber of Commerce’s website said, Valentine’s Day is now “a time when brands and retailers are increasingly recognizing that the number of happy singles is on the rise.” That’s faster than the much happier group. ” According to a 2022 Pew survey, about 30 percent of American adults are single, and about half of adults under 30 are single. Chances are, many of those people have dated someone at some point, and others are probably going through the challenges of dating apps. They constitute an untapped Valentine’s Day market.
Yuan-oriented advertising is a case study in how well brands can appear relatable and achieve authenticity, the elusive holy grail of Gen Z values. Such campaigns try to make the product feel. Several.That’s certainly true everyone Have you ever had or lost a relationship (or at least one)? Brands aim to appear self-aware during the most banal time of the year, aiming to appeal to younger consumers who have been used to finding corny sales pitches online for years. It is said that
The once-obsessive turn to marketing may also reflect a broader shift in the way people view each other. Good advertising tries to address cultural shifts, and brands seem to understand that. For many young people, spending time online requires serious sanity. There is blame and hard boundaries. Following the trend of recent generations to remain friends with exes, many young people today seem to be interested in cutting ties with people. As my colleague Caitlin Tiffany wrote in 2022, we are in the midst of an epidemic of shunning toxic people. Part of the reason, she suggests, is that young people’s “brains are steeped in wellness culture and the rhetoric of ‘self-care’ that emphasizes health.” We need to prioritize our own well-being above all else. ” This attitude has permeated pop culture, with Revenge Girlfriend songs now popular. Pop divas like Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift open up about past flames and getting revenge on those who hurt them.
As Valentine’s Day has evolved, brands have followed suit. Firstly, this day was an expensive holiday for people in relationships.later parks and recreation Hallmark and others, who coined the name “Galentine’s Day” to mean celebrating the holiday with friends, have swooped in to sell people a way to celebrate the holiday without a significant other. Now, products are being marketed even to people who hate them. Perhaps that’s the natural endpoint for vacations, which have been closely tied to spending for decades. But those who want to do so can find true joy in the day. And I would like to conclude with some serious words. Regardless of whether you buy anything this year, I wish you a happy Valentine’s Day and hopefully not getting too vindictive.
Related:
today’s news
- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said information about “serious threats to national security” had been shared with lawmakers. CNN reported that sources said the threat was linked to Russia.
- In light of last week’s failure of the Senate border bill, ICE reported that it is considering a plan to address its budget shortfall by releasing thousands of immigrants and reducing detainer capacity. of washington post.
- At least one person was killed and 14 others were injured in a shooting near the Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally in Kansas City, the Kansas City Fire Department said. Two armed individuals are in custody.
dispatch
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night reading
Why you should spend more on your baby
Written by Annie Laurie
Dr. Mona Hanna Atisha felt a deep sense of frustration while caring for a young patient. “I do everything I’m supposed to do as a pediatrician,” she said, counseling patients’ parents about vaccines, healthy eating, safe sleep and car seats. Told. But Hannah Attisha practices in Flint, Michigan’s poorest city, where more than half of children grow up in poverty. That poverty means her patients are more likely to miss milestones and grow up to have heart disease, diabetes, and experience mental distress. She felt like she was just putting a “band-aid” on it, she said. Poverty is “a really big problem. You can’t fix it.”
Unless it turns out she can.
Read the full article.
See more atlantic
culture break
Check it out (or skip it). madame web “This is another uninspired entry in the bloated world of superhero movies,” writes David Sims.
read. Lauren Markham’s new book, a Maps of future ruins: borders and affiliationsIn , we explore the contradictory prejudices behind anti-immigrant attitudes.
Play the daily crossword.
Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.
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