The United Shops of America

Visiting the USA this year and I feel it should really be re-named...Having been exposed by now to the relentless advertising on cable TV for a few months now, UK TV seems like an ad-less haven! Cannot get through one episode of "How I met your mother" without at least 15 ads in between...its not just the frequency but also the composition thats fascinating: there are the usual ones for cars, breakfast cereals, OTC drugs, movies but on top of that its the advertisements for prescription drugs and lawyers that take my breath away! You would never know that such diseases existed until they told you that you may well be suffering from them....depression, different types of cancer, diabetes, gout, arthritis etc and son after the ad there is the mandatory fast forward recital of the various side effects. Then there are the lawyer ads: "do you or anyone you know suffer from the symptoms of asbestos poisoning? Do yu or anyone you know work in an area that might give you asbestos poisoning? You are entitled to blah blah, Call us now!"
Luckily I am of the ADD persuasion when it comes to ads...they pass by me without my brain registering anything. Some people I know on the other hand just soak up all this information so they can "talk to their doctor" about it...

Next suggestive justification for the re-naming: Thanksgiving, Xmas holidays are less about "holidays" and more about getting consumers out in the shops. So shops are closed on thanksgiving, but open with a vengeance with huge sales starting at 3-4am in many stores...people then start lining up for the goodies the night before in the bitter cold. Maybe its exciting, maybe it generates that extra bit of revenue...Im trying to think WHY. This BTW is called "Black Friday"...seems like the term originated in Philadelphia in 1966 and was used to denote the heavy traffic congestion due to sales the day after thanksgiving..it has now spread wider. Black Friday is apparently the busiest shopping day of the year! So presumably, thats why the shops open so early...creating traffic jams and road (and parking) rage in the early hours! There I was, naively thinking that maybe this was a way to give poor people a chance to get to the sales - surely the rich will not give up their precious time standing in line...Lets not forget "Cyber Monday" which are the online sales the monday after thanksgiving..

This is a country where apparently people STILL aren't buying enough, thats having a recession? Looks a bit tough to believe when you see the parking wars outside the big shops on Black friday...