Posts Tagged ‘voco’

The cynics among us like to point out that all holidays outside of Christmas and Easter were manufactured by the card companies and florists to rob us blind and empty our bank accounts, increasing the hellish commute we’ll face when we need to walk uphill both ways to the poorhouse in our twilight years.

Seeing as Mother’s Day is this Sunday (and reading news articles like this one about anticipated spending on flowers, gifts, and cards for Mom), I’ve started to wonder if it’s a manufactured holiday, too.

Turns out it is…but not for the reasons you might think.

Apparently Mother’s Day is a combination of two traditions…the one pushed by Anne Marie Jarvis, who wanted to celebrate her mother after that woman’s death, and Julia Ward Howe (think “Battle Hymn of the Republic”), who used a mother’s holiday as a way to organize women around issues of pacifism and disarmament.  For years, Mother’s Day was known as a working-class holiday celebrating peace, safety, and health.  Only during World War II did this holiday gain popularity, perhaps due to its sentimentality in a time of war.

Though Jarvis wanted Mother’s Day to be about “sentiment, not profit,” her message has been co-opted by savvy marketers looking to cash in on parental devotion.  Nowadays, it’s rare to meet someone who remembers the true focus of the first Mother’s Days in this country.

When you’re buying those flowers or mailing that card to Mom this year, stop and think for a second about the true origins of this holiday.  What can we learn from the co-opting of Mother’s Day?  It can’t be all bad…after all, most mothers are unsung heroes of some variety.  Still, the authentic origins of Mother’s Day feel a bit more real and relevant than a holiday meant for random cards and obligatory gifts.  Maybe it’s time to re-hybridize Mother’s Day, turning it into a celebration of the women who bore us and the universal rights and values of all children.

Every once in a while a product comes along that baffles, confounds, and makes branding folk salivate. The beyond-hot, beyond-prized, beyond-fun Nintendo Wii is one such product, and it definitely makes the grade for What Works Mondays here at Voco Creative.

First of all, as someone whose video game mojo never seemed to transcend the original NES or Sega Dreamcast, I wasn’t sure any modern-day console could make up for my lack of skills. I’m more into loopy, fantastical graphics and hysterical laughter than blood-soaked first-person shooters, and many more modern games make me woozy with their rotating cameras and fast-paced action.

The people at Nintendo must have been listening to the internal angst of women everywhere when they came up with the Wii. First, they made something that’s sleeker and more visually appealing than anything on the run-of-the-mill entertainment stand (unless you are Juli Dimos, who has made great strides in Mac-ifying her life). The Wii is slim, white, and discreet. Its controller is downright brilliant (a “Wiimote” that can be flipped, shaken, wielded like a sword or fishing rod…the list goes on). And its games have managed to bridge the crucial gender and age gaps that make the video game market so inaccessible.

But what really makes Wii work? Simple: Nintendo created a product that wasn’t just impeccably branded, but was in insanely short supply when it first made its way to American shelves. If you’ve been in the United States for the past year and half, you’ve doubtless heard some friend or family member bemoan the empty shelves in their local superstore.

The international Wii shortage may have been accidental, but it was a stroke of marketing genius. By becoming known as the red-hottest, most-in-demand console of all time, the Wii has achieved a remarkable level of public awareness in a very short period of time. It can command a relatively ridiculous price for new games and accessories, and it continues to push the envelope with games that allow collaboration between players of all ages, locations (it has a great online system that works for free via WiFi), and genders.

I’m not sure if Carmen Electra’s Wii pole dancing will take off any time soon, but I can tell you right now that Wii’s combination of accessibility and tantalizing unavailability will make games like Mario Kart Wii and WiiFit fly off the shelves.