Designated Days (eg Mothers Day) Are A Good Thing

[Griffin NoName]

My position: Against.

I have just discovered Blogging Against Disablism Day will be on 1st May, 2009 so I've missed it. If there is to be a day for Anything, then there should be days for Everything, which is untennable. No one could keep track, and anyway with so many, the existing ones are already getting devalued.

*my english language morality is having convulsions at the "disablism" wordisming 

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I'll bite.

Humans are fickle and uninterested unless a problem touches them directly, so something like say, multiple sclerosis is out there and a significant problem for those who suffer it, the rest wouldn't care one bit unless they themselves or any of their direct family is affected. How is that improved by "MS awareness day"? By reminding the rest that the problem exists, that it requires energy to be solved and that perhaps 'you' may be affected by it at some point. While it may be a small gesture and the effect might be smaller, the more people become aware of it the better.

Your turn. 

[Griffin NoName]

Your turn. 

Anyone can join in !

You haven't addressed my point about days for Everything. How on earth should it be decided what is important enough to bring to people's attention and following your line of argument, what needs awarenes-raising most? Then there's the issue of how many "Issues" should be linked to each day of the year. it's a minefeld. At present just anyone can declare any day a "Wotist Day". That is plain silly.

Once there is a "Wotsit" day, endless marketing evolves linking colours and emblems and wrist-bands etc and such-like to it. Witness Pink for Breast Cancer - I love the colour pink and I hate it having been appropriated for BC. And there aren't enough colours and our arms aren't long enough for all the wristbands that might link to days we support

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I disagree, 'wotsits' day is the ultimate marketing enterprise, and only those making the effort to market their day get to decide if it will be prominent or not, it's a free market, no?

Nevertheless not all days can get the prominence of others (ie, mother's day) but that doesn't undermine the effort done for the few souls that get exposure to issue at hand, in other words, regardless of how many issues are taken on the 365 days of the year only a few will get most attention giving hopes to the little ones and success to the big ones. 'Wotits Day' is the ultimate capitalistic enterprise even if money isn't exchanged on the process, fostering creativity, competition and ultimately awareness of the brand in question.

Are you a communist to attack one of our sacrosanct institutions?

(oh goat, where art thou?  )

[Griffin NoName]

An example. As a mother I would like a constant appreciation. I don't want it all on one day, thank you. Having such a day gives people the excuse to avoid thinking about "Wotist" on all other days. As marketing enterprise that's pretty poor as for example on selling "Wotsit" Day cards on one day a year. So, it's not even a good brand awareness tool. In fact it could be described as an anti-branding tool.

Now, consider. Breast Cancer has co-opted a whole month - October. This gives more opportunity for raising money* and theoretically awareness. But in reality, this is madness gone even further. More and more "Wotsits" will start converting their Days to Weeks and then Months. Soon we will have whole millenia dedicated to "Wotsits" Millenia. See, mathematically the idea is senseless.

* and who are they raising this money for? I am sure many Mothers would love the proceeds from Mother's Day instead of the tacky box of chocolates that is intended to make up for being ignored the rest of the year. But more usually the money made is supposedly for charity, until one analyses the actual percentage that makes it through to the deserving people.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

But isn't precisely mother's day when we heard that all days should be mother's day? The intention of every single one of those marketing enterprise is to overwhelm the awareness to their cause/product, hopefully all the time, the same way the goal of any entrepreneur is to be the largest seller of it's wares all over, but that doesn't mean that they reach such privilege, as my gran used to say, you have to aspire to pope to become an altar boy, IOW don't be fooled by their desires, remember that with luck they'll only get a couple of minutes worth from the public's attention span in the best case scenario, making the effort even more important to their cause.

In all seriousness it's a matter of symmetry, if all efforts where managed in the same way it certainly would become useless noise, and in fact I'd dare say that some of those trying to grab a day, week or month of attention are already considering if that approach is the most effective, but the reality is that all efforts are indeed asymmetric making some causes more prominent than others and gaining the most attention. Some are legitimate marketing enterprises (like Valentine's, Mother's or even Halloween) that get lot's of traction because they are a source of revenue for a number of industries, some can only aspire to a passing mention on the news and many don't even get that.

I say those are a legitimate ways to gather attention in a world where a second of your attention is worth millions, and if you don't like the effort the best thing you can do is just ignore it, you wouldn't be the only one doing it.

[beagle]

Are you a communist to attack one of our sacrosanct institutions?

(oh goat, where art thou?  )

It's very confusing. Goat's a communist, but Zhao Ziyang turns out to have been an Evil imperialist lackey running dog.

Unless it's another Hitler diary episode...

---

I have no opinion on special days, as I never remember them.

[Griffin NoName]

..............if you don't like the effort the best thing you can do is just ignore it, you wouldn't be the only one doing it.

I have no opinion on special days, as I never remember them.

I never remember them either. But I can still have an opinion on them.............and when I come across them, I do ignore them.

I don't believe buying useless/rubbish stuff -with a tag to some virtually arbitrary worthyness -  is a good way to promote anything. It's all part of the western pre-occupation with spending money for the sake of spending money.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I never remember them either. But I can still have an opinion on them.............

Is this a case of "I don't play golf but I still have a (terrible) opinion about the sport" or a case of "I don't kill people but I still have a (terrible) opinion about murder"?
 

[Griffin NoName]

Yes.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

By and large, most of these special days/weeks/months are of a bovine scatalogical nature as far as I'm concerned. There aren't enough days or months or weeks for all the issues that are important and like Zono said, cramming the calendar with them means they mean even less. I don't care about BC month, Black history month, Asian history month, MS day, father's day, or even mother's day*.

There has to be another vehicle of delivery to get across the importance of being aware of lupus, BC, mothers, Blacks and Asians in American history, and MS. I don't have an answer, but having those sort of days doesn't really mean anything.


I do have an exception because I am fickle and only care when it addresses an issue I care about () because I like Labor day (and I like it on the day everyone else celebrates it on). Oh, and I like Mol day. But other than that, those days our calendars are crammed with (secretary's day, anyone?) mean nothing to me.


_{*I'd prefer not to have this misinterpreted in the light of the rest of the post--my parents are important to me. The date set aside for them means nothing.}

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

(secretary's day, anyone?)

That's an interesting example. First of all the concept is outdated, there are far less secretaries nowadays and the ones that remain would never agree to be called secretaries, and much rather be called "[insert euphemism here] assistants". But the day had an importance in the time were secretaries were ubiquitous, ignored and/or mistreated. The fact that chauvinism has subsided a bit may be part of the recognition they achieved back in the day. The fact that it doesn't matter anymore doesn't mean that it didn't reached it's goal.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

(secretary's day, anyone?)

That's an interesting example. First of all the concept is outdated, there are far less secretaries nowadays and the ones that remain would never agree to be called secretaries, and much rather be called "[insert euphemism here] assistants". But the day had an importance in the time were secretaries were ubiquitous, ignored and/or mistreated. The fact that chauvinism has subsided a bit may be part of the recognition they achieved back in the day. The fact that it doesn't matter anymore doesn't mean that it didn't reached it's goal.

Something I hadn't thought about. I think it may have been before my time or conscious awareness of time.

(secretary's day, anyone?)

Flag day
International Pancake day
Spamarama

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Flag day:

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day

Look for timing and context, in the middle of WWI and promoted by the seated president. Considering how ubiquitous flags are in the US I dare say the [nationalistic] effort succeeded.

International Pancake Day:
Again context, according to wikipedia the day was invented as a protestant tradition prior to lent. Now, can you blame IHOP for running with this one?

Spamarama:
This one is trickier, although it becomes obvious that it was a sanctioned marketing device for the restaurants that started it and for the city of Austin once the ball was running.

Again, the importance of any 'wotsit' day is related to the 'tribe' that started it and it's goals. Perhaps some are too local for you and I to care (like spamarama) but they certainly have their function in the marketing of the cause/product in question. IOW attacking 'wotsit' days is the equivalent of attacking TV/radio commercials because the annoyance brough by those.

Rather than attacking 'wotsit' days in general I would attack the ones with which I disagree, the same way you don't attack other marketing enterprises unless you consider them unsavory or of dubious morality (like say, prescription drug advertising).

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

All right, point. Means I'm only going to support International Mol day, Pi day (I actually *did* do pi day this year), Festivus, talk like a pirate day, towel day, but mostly Labor day* and Lupus Awareness day. I *would* do Moosemas, but well... 

To boil it down, I guess, funny holidays, Labor day, and anything for lesser known but still important diseases.

_{*what pisses me off in regard to this holiday is that we celebrate it six months later here in the US. It's May 1st everywhere else because it also memorializes the Haymartket Massacre in 1886 in Chicago. We were pressured into celebrating it at all and for stupid political reasons, moved it to September.}