Like any good socially-conscious, left-leaning college student, I avoided Black Friday. We are all aware that this night of slashed prices and crazed crowds keeps workers from their families and blinds shoppers from focusing on theirs during the holidays. Nothing forces us to attend the shopping frenzy; we make a conscious decision to partake in the madness or to remain in our warm beds, dreaming of sugar plums and succulent turkeys.

Despite my aversion towards any type of commercial center during the holiday season, necessity drew me to the nearest mall (you really can’t, and shouldn’t, buy undergarments at a thrift store). While walking through the shopping center, a feeling of anxiety and worry came over me. I began to fret about what I was going to buy for my friends and family for Christmas. I frantically searched the whimsically decorated shop windows looking for some sort of sign, anything that would give me an idea of the perfect gift. This stopped me in my tracks. Never before had my mind been commandeered by marketing masters, brainwashed so quickly with messages to consume.

After regaining my senses, I realized why I abhor shopping for necessities during the holidays. An endless loop of Christmas tunes blasted over loudspeakers as fantastical window displays and holiday sales all covertly send us messages to consume. Such environmental cues play into our associations with holiday paraphernalia and the social norm of buying gifts for all of our friends and family. We hear the music and see the lights, and feel the need to begin the month-long marathon of shopping for everyone on our list.

This is subliminal, out of the reach of our normal awareness. We enjoy the ice skating rinks and Santa Claus displays, without thinking about their implications or incentives. With Black Friday, we can consciously choose to avoid the madness, but with these tactics carried out by malls and shopping centers throughout America, we are less conscious of their insanity and therefore more accepting of it.

These marketing ploys are not new; since the advent of department stores in the late 19th century, dreamy displays were used to add a sense of fantasy to the shopping experience in order to encourage holiday consumption. New technology allowed for enormous plate glass window displays which gave shoppers a peek into the “good life” and to what the store had to offer to make that life obtainable. Stores took advantage of the holiday season by creating themed displays, offering children the chance to talk to Santa, or handing out free coloring books.

Montgomery Ward, a now defunct department store, pioneered this tactic and created one of our most loved Christmas tales of all time. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as the main character of a coloring book handed out to shoppers. The tactic worked; the small gift of a Christmas coloring book carried feelings of goodwill to consumers, who then felt more open to buying the store’s products.

Malls decorated with snowflakes and elves are now an expectation in our society. Unlike the unsettling image of Black Friday with its melee of bargain hunters and long lines, the image of shopping centers during the holidays is inviting and friendly, welcoming us to consume. We have become so accustomed to this insidious ploy that we may no longer be aware of how the decorations and music pillage our free-will.

Next time I find myself in a mall filled with frantic shoppers and Christmas decorations, I will make sure to think twice about my consumption to ensure what I choose to purchase is out of my own freedom of choice, and not out of the faux holiday cheer brought on by plastic reindeer and a cheap, whiskey-soaked mall Santa Claus.

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