Let’s face it – by this time if you are still deciding on Valentine’s Day gifts you are pretty much in deep trouble with the object of your intentions. This isn’t meant as gift-giving advice. Nor is it a curmudgeonly rant about the ‘Hallmark Holiday’ – while the card-maker and your local florist certainly profit from February 14th, the celebration has historical ties. No … this is about the seeming ‘arms race’ in gift-giving.
Initially I had started pooling loads of images from every email I had gotten over the last month touting the ‘perfect Valentine’s Day gift’, with the intent of overwhelming you with them. Instead, I simply put the iPod Touch Heart image up, and will list some of the places that emailed me (and each of these are separate … and this is by no means comprehensive!):
- Apple – for the iPad
- Apple – for the iPod Touch
- Barnes & Noble – for the nook
- Barnes & Noble – for the nook Color
- Amazon – for the Kindle
- Pandora – internet radio subscription
- Every online florist I ever did business with.
- Every jewelry store that has my email
- L.L. Bean – various stuff
- Slacker – internet radio subscription
- Buy.com – seeming everything they have is perfect
- NewEgg – same as Buy.com
- Circuit City – same again
- Sony – laptops
- Sony – cameras
- Sony – TVs
- Dell – laptops
- HP – more laptops
- Corning / Corelle / Revere – dishes, pots & pans and other stuff
Aside from some typical fare, there was a disturbing trend towards high end gadgets. I mean, I need to drop $800 on a 64GB iPad 3G to show someone I REALLY love them? I think I’ll stick with a nice bottle of wine, a home cooked meal, and some great quality time spent together focusing on what REALLY matters … Love.
I think that the Beatles called this one back in 1964, so I’ll stick with that:
What was the most outrageous Valentine’s Day sale email advertisement you saw this year?