Every year, without fail, I find myself disgusted as Valentine’s Day draws near. This once-meaningful holiday has turned commercial, and I fear it can never be recovered.
I couldn’t even sit down to watch CNN without having to endure the pain of all those commercials telling me that unless I bought their product on Valentine’s Day, I would be disappointed. There were hundreds of jewelry commercials claiming that “she” wants this specific adornment.
I don’t know who “she” is, but “she” doesn’t have good taste. One commercial suggested that pajamas were the perfect gift, while another claimed that teddy bears would make someone ecstatic.
Stuffed animals, while annoying, are nothing compared to the utter atrociousness of balloons. My eyes literally started to twitch as soon as I saw that first balloon. I must always resist the urge to take out a pen and just pop it. All a balloon says is that whoever gave it cares enough on this one day a year to buy plastic or Mylar bags full of gas. Yep, bags of gas just scream eternal love to me.
Apparently red roses, which are what all women want according to commercials, are supposed to represent passionate love, but I know what they really mean. What red roses really mean is: “I only care about you enough to buy this generic flower at the last minute instead of putting thought into actually finding out what flowers you do like.” Nothing says love like generic flowers, or better yet, that generic heart-shaped box of candy.
Every time I walked into Long’s Drugstore or any other store that sold food items, I was temporarily blinded by the sea of red candy. From M&M’s to chocolate turtles, and even the dreaded Peeps, everything was some garish shade of red or pink.
Chocolate is chocolate, whether it is in a plain wrapper or an elaborately decorated box. The only difference is that the chocolate in the box probably costs more.
Speaking of outlandish pricing, I’m also thoroughly disgusted with Hallmark. Not only did I have to see commercials for their stuffed animals, but I was disappointed because they charge so much for their meaningless cards. Whether they have music, a witty line or glitter, they are just pieces of paper with words that were written by someone else. It would be better if people wrote something themselves, but because of commercials, people are convinced that a card can say it better.
All these commercials do is try to guilt woman and men into feeling as if they have to buy their significant other something or else risk getting dumped.
During the week leading up to the big day, all I could hear was people stressing out about what to get someone. This unnecessary stress on people to buy that “perfect gift” for their significant other isn’t what Valentine’s Day is about.
From what I remember, it started out as an old Pagan holiday celebrating fertility, and now, sadly, it has warped into a day to celebrate love through boxed candy and stuffed animals. I doubt the pagans had boxed candy or stuffed animals back in the day, and they didn’t seem bothered by that.
In the end, it didn’t matter because either people were happy with what they got, or they were disappointed because they expected more after watching all those mind-numbing commercials. The only good thing that came out of all of this was the marked down candy the day after.