Holiday Madness

The holiday season really brings out the worst in people and I believe it's all because people are too focused on trying to get the best deals instead of focusing on the real value of what we are celebrating. The holiday season shouldn't be about buying, buying, buying. It should be about spending time with your loved ones and showing them the love you have for them.
Nowadays this season brings out the worst in people. As a retail worker I see this on a daily basis. People will do anything to get the best sale or items during this season that it's actually disgusting. I recently saw two middle aged mom's physically fighting in the mall's parking lot over a parking space. Mall security was even called to settle the fight and send the women home. As this was all happening someone leaving the mall approached my car and offered me a better spot than either of the two ladies were fighting over. This kind of represented a symbolic experience for me. Look at what you have in front of you rather than what others have. If the ladies weren't acting ridiculous over a parking space, they would have been able to find another one.
It's extremely upsetting to me that a time that is suppose to be centered around giving and loving one another has turned into such a violent time.

The Red Cup Dilemma

The holidays are just around the corner. Christmas lights are being hung, presents are being wrapped, and people are making stupid videos about their anger towards a red cup.
Starbucks released their new edition of their commonly known holiday cups. Instead of including any decorations like previous years, their cups for 2015 are now just solid red. People are up in arms over this saying that they are ruining holiday traditions. Starbucks changed the cups to this very minimalistic design in order to not offend anyone that may celebrate differently than the typical Christmas celebration. The purpose is not to offend anyone however it is doing the exact opposite. People are showing their rage in many different ways. Some are posting rants all over social media and others are telling the baristas their name is "Merry Christmas" in order to put the holiday back on the cup. Honestly, this is all extremely stupid. It's a cup!! There are way bigger issues going on in our society that we should express this anger towards. A coffee cup is not one of these issues. I can't even really recall the cups prior to the year 2015. I do hold some value in the Starbucks red cups because it's part of what I consider to remind me of the holiday season. I just don't see the point in getting upset over the change of it. They are still red and serve the main purpose. As time goes on things are going to change, this is just one of those times.

Third World Culture Kid

All my life I have moved around. For as long as I can remember, I knew that nowhere was permanent for me. Both of my parents get bored easily and my dad's job requires us to move around the world every three to four years. It's the perfect combination for them. As I've grown up I've come to realize how wonderful this opportunity was for me. However, it has had some weird effects on the way I view myself.
The majority of people are obsessed with the idea of where you are from and 'what you are'. By this they mean what culture do you identify most with. Typically when answering this questions outside of the United States, I refer to myself as being American. However, I've noticed that after moving back to the states after almost eight years of living abroad I don't exactly relate to being American. The longer I lived outside of the country, the more I began to grow away from the lifestyle and culture of it. I now view myself as a mixture of all the different cultures from the countries I've lived in. This makes answering the question of "where are you from?" very difficult to answer because I don't typically reflect the stereotype of a typical American girl. But why is there so much importance in being from one place? I know of many others that also feel as if they are an outsider because they don't reflect the exact representation of the culture that they're from. I believe that it's better to pick up things from other cultures. We live in a society with so much access to other ways of life that it almost seems ridiculous to not explore other lifestyles and add aspects to your own lifestyle.

Netflix and No Cable

My first thought whenever I come home from work or class is to immediately go on my computer and log into my Netflix or Hulu account. All forms of my television consumptions comes from my computer. I can have all the television series or movies right at my finger tips. It's a really bittersweet concept.
A few years ago the only way to watch a whole television series in the timespan of one week was to either catch a marathon of the show or purchase the DVD box set for an expensive price. Now I can access hundreds of different series for only $8 a month on Netflix. This is a way cheaper price than any cable company can offer me. Not only can I access this for such an inexpensive price, my friends and family can too. I am fortunate enough to have my parents pay for my Netflix account because they need it and use it just as much as I do. In fact my family no longer has any cable subscription. We have do however have many different subscriptions to sites such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix that offer our family way more than cable ever could. We can be miles apart and still share the same accounts to access our favorite programs.
It amazes me how much our way of consuming TV shows and movies have changed within the last few years. I can't even imagine how my children are going to enjoy their favorite episodes. How long until cable completely disappears because they can't keep up?

When is merchandize too much?

In a few weeks the new Star Wars movie will be coming out. It is the most recent movie in the saga that has been made in the last 10 years. People are going crazy over it! It's crazy to me how a single movie can create such a brand for themselves.
Many view movies as something for entertainment or a way to escape their reality for a few hours while they unwind. But there's a whole other side to the movie industry that is not obvious at first glance. I've noticed while I walk the aisles at Target they sell Star Wars everything. They have everything from coffee cups, arts and crafts, clothing, and even Star Wars themed Christmas decorations. They have taken a whole movie saga and turned it into a brand. They can sell the rights to plaster the Star Wars logo on literally everything to other companies to make different items that make money. Now the movie is no longer just a movie, it is a brand.
This is just another aspect of consumerism in our society. When someone falls in love with a classic movie like Star Wars there is a need to buy everything related to it. We see all of these different items and not only does it make the consumer feel the need to buy it, but it also is a sense of free advertising for the movie. It's not the same type of advertising that new movies need to do, because everyone knows Star Wars. It is the type of advertising that creates excitement around the release for the new movie. As an advertising major it's really cool to see how Disney has taken a classic logo like Star Wars to promote the new movie. However, I think that when movies sell their rights to make merchandize like this it adds less value to the brand. No one needs Star Wars lingerie, yes they really do sell this, but because companies can make it knowing someone out there will buy it, they make it. Even if it is extremely ridiculous.

Service with a fake smile

If there is something that working in retail has taught me it is that the vast majority of other people do not have any sense of patience. As a sales associate it is my job to provide our customers with great customer service that leaves a memorable impression of our store. I enjoy my job very much and do a lot to achieve this. However, I've noticed that while try to accomplish this I have run into many horrible people that lose a sense of respect for sales associates. It makes my job much harder to keep a smile while I'm being yelled at by a customer because they couldn't find their size or they waited 15 minutes in line on a busy Saturday afternoon.
We live in a world where the customer is always right because the customer is the one who helps a business stay alive. I believe there comes a point when the customer is not always right. They are just rude. Especially during the holiday season shoppers seem to lose the sense of reality that sales associates are people too. It is not our fault that we don't carry every size or we are so busy our line is out the door, yet some customers feel all of that is under our control. When a customer is yelling at me at the registers because my store doesn't compare to higher end stores I have to stand there with a smile and continue to try to make their experience as pleasant as possible. It is my job to remain calm and take this all in no matter how rude they are. The only thing I can do is continue to provide the best customer service I can and remember when I go shopping to treat every associate with respect no matter how frustrated I am.

Put down the phone and tell me you love me!

My biggest pet peeve is going out and seeing couples out at restaurants so embraced in their phones that they barely pay attention to each other. It's possible that I'm only seeing a tiny second into their relationship and I'm really only seeing the second each of them check their emails. However, I feel that I always see this! I've even noticed that my own boyfriend and I sometimes get so into our phones that we completely forget we are supposed to be enjoying each other's company. Constantly being around someone who is constantly checking their phone has become an even bigger pet peeve of mine the second I noticed that when hanging out with my friends we would have long periods of silence while we sat next to each other just on our phones. It’s a bit hypocritical since I know I do it myself but I when I’m personally hanging with someone, I want to feel as if I have their full attention. Nowadays there is a constant need to feel caught up with our friends on social media. If we don’t know what someone is eating or how he or she is spending his or her day we feel a sense of being out of touch. I know that personally I need to always check my phone, even when there’s nothing to check. The second I go on my 10-minute break at work or even the second I get out of class I feel the need to instantly check my Facebook or Instagram. I then spend the next 15 minutes catching up on all the most recent posts. Almost every time I check my social media accounts there is nothing new or even memorable, yet the next time I get a bit of free time I feel the need to instantly check it. It’s a new form of the common acronym ‘FOMO’ meaning ‘the fear of missing out’. This i the effect of having large amounts of social media that keeps us connected with all of our friends with a single swipe of an app. If we aren’t always keeping up with the most recent posts we might miss something everyone else is talking about.

Social movement or social hashtag?

I can't go on Facebook without feeling overwhelmed by the colors of the French flag. Over the weekend terrible terrorist attacks happened all over Paris. This tragic event has resulted in people all around the world coming together to show their support and love for Paris. It seems everyone on my timeline has taken part in is to add a French flag filter over their profile photo. The purpose of this is to have a physical representation of the world showing their love  and support for Paris in such a dark time.
I love seeing everyone come together like this on social media. It truly shows how through new technology we can change the world. Before social media it was more difficult to have a physical representation on something and even more difficult to spread it across the world. However there is a sense of social pressure that also comes from changing your profile photo. I have not added the French flag to my profile photo for numerous reasons and for some reason when I go on Facebook I feel a sense of pressure to do so. Nearly over 90% of my friends have already changed it so why don't I? It's not that I don't care or show empathy for what happened to those in Paris. It's completely the opposite.
When people post statuses after traumatic events like this with popular hashtags such as "#prayforparis" I get a sense of cheesiness. To me it seems that people use these events and create social media gimmicks out of them. It seems that by falling into these gimmicks we are simply just following what everyone else is doing. It's not only the Paris events that have made me feel this way. Other minor and major events recently have all been put on social media following a catchy hashtag. Once everyone on your timeline is posting using this hashtag there is a sense of force that makes it seem like you need to too. These changes are only for our own friends to see so why do I need to prove through my profile photo that I care? There are many other ways for me to show my support for those in Paris but I do not feel that adding a filter is the correct way to do so.

2 for Frozen Food.

It's all over your television. You hear about how at Olive Garden you can have two entrees, sometimes even with an appetizer and dessert for only $22! What a deal! These promotions are what drive large populations into restaurants such as Chilis, Applebees, and Red Lobster. A large majority of the United States restaurant business is focused on giving people as much food as possible for the cheapest amount for both the producer and the consumer. But have you ever thought about how these companies are able to sustain them? It is all in the food. Usually when I tell people that I refuse to eat at restaurants with the 2 for $22 deal I am immediately labeled as a snob who would probably rather spend my time in Whole Foods buying overpriced kale. My reason for not eating at these restaurants is solely because I do not agree with their alternative motives. They do not care what they feed their customers, as long as it is the cheapest for them. This results in frozen mass-produced meals that are distributed to many of their chain locations all over the United States. To the average American they see a great way to feed their whole family while going out to eat. The process of making this food is so widely unknown that it is safe to say we have no idea what we are really eating. To the producer, it's all about what brings in the most profit rather than what is good considered to be wholesome food for the consumers.  For example, if we trace back an aspect of a meal, such as the meat, it's completely disgusting. The cheaper it is for meat producers to raise the cows or chicken they sell usually results in animals being treated the worst. Don't get my wrong, my opinion about these restaurants does not solely derive from animal cruelty. It is a much greater issue than that. No matter how poor the conditions are for these animals, producers are still allowed to label it as natural. In fact, when it comes to the food industry the term natural does not even have a real definition anymore. Lobbyists have won the battle against the FDA to not hold any regulations towards labeling foods as 'natural'. This is scares me! If we trace back a piece of steak and find out that the original cow spends its day sitting in its own manurer. Those feces then somehow find its way into the cow's food and therefore into our food. This same piece of steak can easily be labeled natural, just as easy as the all organic piece of steak. Without these regulations it makes it even more difficult for us to know what we are putting in our bodies. A typical consumer feels as if they can trust a restaurant to serve quality food. However I feel that what defines quality food does not just reflect how a meal tastes. It should also reflect the overall health of the food. My body is extremely important to me and I like to know what goes into it. This does not say that I only eat organic and shop at high-end groceries though. I just would rather spend my dinner out at a small hole in the wall restaurant or cooking in my own kitchen rather than buy into these mass marketing schemes that work to feed people without the concern about regulations.

Overselling and Over Consuming

As an advertising major I am extremely interested in observing the strategies and techniques  companies use sell their products to their consumers. I recently read an essay by Benjamin Barber titled Overselling Capitalism with Consumerism that really stuck out to me because the author discusses how society runs and how companies take advantage of this. 
We live in a society that is run on ‘the next best thing’.  There is even a nation wide holiday dedicated to shopping. As the essay mentioned, consumption is seen as good for the economy in producing goods and services and in turn profit for the producers. Even as young children the surrounding environment is teaching us that we constantly need more. However, I agree that we have access to too much shopping.  If you take a normal clothing store, such as Forever 21, they receive new clothing every day. With a turn over of new items in this short of a timespan, consumers are sure to feel as if they are not up to date on the fashion.

I recently watched a documentary discussing our over consumption titled, The True Cost. This documentary shows that our consumption creates a huge problem with the disposable of our consumption. With a high turnover rate of new fashion leads to a large amount of clothes sent to places such as Good Will. Out of all the clothes sent to the Good Will, only about 30% is actually donated or sold to those who need it. The majority is literally dumped in third world countries. It may not seem like our constant need to buy more things is hurting anything more than our wallet, but there is actually a lot more at risk.