What About Love?

by Angie Ash, EVP We’re at the tail end of October. Kids are hyped up for Halloween and ready to overdose on candy. Unfortunately, you can’t live in the moment like little ones because you’ve bypassed Halloween weeks ago. You’ve been drinking pumpkin spice lattes since August, even though you were likely more in the mood back then for rosé on the patio. Your holiday planning in-store is definitely now in full swing and a trip to Costco last month confirmed that, ready or not, consumers are being pumped up to shop their hearts and wallets out. And with the economic forecast not looking so sunny and bright, perhaps that’s a good retail strategy. But then, you turn on the news, listen to a podcast, or read an online article. And it’s about the shootings in Maine, infants being beheaded in Israel, and an unheard-of amount of fentanyl being smuggled into our country. That’s just in the first five minutes! And your heart just feels so heavy and your thoughts go to all the dark places in the corners of your mind. What in the world is going on? What country am I living in? Who are these monsters? What is WRONG with people??! The truth is, people don’t want to live with the dire. They don’t want to ‘go there’. We’ve programmed ourselves to turn off what we don’t want to think about. It’s safer to be more interested in what Taylor Swift is wearing and who she’s presently dating than to have to think about the heavy stuff. We can escape somewhere happy with a few touches on our smartphones, never mind that our back pockets buzz and ding us all day long with the next distraction. I digress. Back in 2020, we at Fruchtman Marketing came up with a campaign for our clients to get their minds focused on the positives during COVID-19. We recognized that people weren’t feeling there was much of that to go around. And here we are in 2023, developing another campaign that’s not focused on buying. Here at Fruchtman, we acknowledge that, although there are a bunch of crazy things we can’t wrap our heads around going on in the world right now, we always have the choice to do good: to lend a helping hand to someone in need, to be the cheerful voice to someone feeling despair, to put someone else’s needs before our own. So yes, you must go about your day. Yes, business must go on. Yes, you are still selling jewelry this holiday season. Caring about Taylor Swift’s latest boyfriend is up to you, and no judgment here. But let’s not be tone-deaf. Perhaps the holidays this year shouldn’t be about pushing out a message of gifting luxury, but more about a message of giving love. That’s a message that resonates with all demographics, no matter their state in life. It’s what everyone in this world needs to feel, see, and hear. And, we most certainly need it now. What’s your holiday message looking like this year? If you’re ready for something different in 2024, we’re ready to help. Drop a line to suits@fruchtman.com