Women’s Day Special

It was a drowsy Sunday morning,  I picked up the newspaper to get a sense of what is going on around the world and what do we have; pages filled with advertisements of various brands with women’s day offers. The marketing was so much in my face that I had to put down the paper. I had never realized until that day that the women’s day has become the next Valentine’s Day, in-fact it is bigger than the Vday for these companies. The target segment is the entire human race. Men and kids are targeted to make women around them feel special. Women are told to feel special and splurge. Wow! The ad companies leave no stone unturned.  They just pounce on every opportunity they get of entering our minds.

There is a long history behind the idea of this day. The idea originated in New York in the year 1909, in the remembrance of a strike held by International Ladies Garments Workers’ Union. Later in 1910 International Women’s Conference proposed establishment of International Women’s Day. For the first time the day was celebrated in 1911 by countries such as Austria, Germany, Denmark.  The purpose of the day was to draw attention to the hardships women have faced and to celebrate women’s accomplishments throughout history.

Today the whole idea of celebration is dictated by these marketers. The ad companies do sure know how to make empowered women feel special but how about those who are still famished of the basic rights. Thanks for making women’s day a carnival of shopping. I hope it does not get reduced just to that.