2/14

Rhetoric of Valentine's Day Ads

Is Valentine’s Day really different from any other day? Or is this just what others want us to think to create unnecessary, exaggerated excitement? In my opinion, Valentine’s Day has become one of the many holidays in which companies take advantage of consumer’s willingness and eagerness to participate in special events just to make more money. This ad is a perfect example of that. It advertises the holiday of Valentine’s Day itself using all of the hearts, not only products being sold to celebrate it. In addition to the colored hearts that attract the viewer’s attention, when you look at the advertisement up close you notice that some of the clouds form hearts as well.

The ad also tells us that Valentine’s Day is not just a regular day of the week. It is supposedly special and requires special attire. Therefore encouraging people to go out and purchase just that for this unique occasion. People will also need to buy various gifts, such as jewelry, chocolate, cards, and/or flowers, for their valentine or valentines.

Is this the way it should really be though? Going along with this approach for this particular holiday is basically transforming love into something that is viewed as temporary and short-lived. This is a major contrast in ideas for those who believe in true love that is supposed to last forever. We should not need a single dedicated day of the year to show or tell people that we love them. Feelings as intense and important as love should be expressed on a daily basis regardless of what specific day the calendar reads. I mean sure its cute how romantic everyone acts on Valentine’s Day, but I think that it tends to get slightly out of hand. People take it a little too far at least for my taste that is.