Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 26

Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 26 - Index

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It is an interesting time to be a consumer
in Detroit. The holiday season has kicked
into high gear, everything is adorned with
glitter, and the television and radio stations
are bombarding viewers with messages of
pure retail extravagance – many of them
created right here in our backyard.
Of course these messages are extravagant;
that’s what advertising is for.
However, the reality of life in the Motor
City is much different than the advertising
we produce. Flip the radio or TV dial to
something news-related, and in between
the locally produced advertisements for cell
phones, jewelry stores, automotive red tag
events and various other products is a neverending
barrage of disastrous economic news.
We have one of the highest foreclosure rates
in the nation, real estate values that are down
almost 10 percent from 2006, and a recent
report in the “Detroit Free Press” that states,
“GM and Ford both announced lower production
plans for the first quarter of 2008 – the lowest
since at least the recession of 1991.”
This all marks a pretty dismal economic future
for Motown – no one has come out and officially
said “recession,” but we all feel it looming.
The logical progression is that lower automobile
production rates would lead to less people on
the assembly line, meaning more layoffs and
more people without the money necessary to
meet the rapidly rising interest rates on their
sub-prime, no-down-payment, interest-only
home loans.
Higher foreclosure rates, real estate values
dropping, trips down side streets in the
suburbs offering more and more “for sale”
signs on homes, luxury vehicles, ATVs, boats,
motorcycles…a pattern begins to take shape.
This is the dichotomy that consumers in
Detroit and many other cities around Michigan
and the nation are living with this overly joyful
holiday season.
The marketing is still effective, though. The
stream of events, sales, extravaganzas and
appeals to our senses of need and desire hit
us right where they should and we want to
go out and buy. We’re split in two, divided
between the fantasy of the holiday season
and the reality of our bank accounts.
The good news is that before too long, the
season will be over and the tinsel, lights and
extravagance will be packed away until next
year. Fiscal calendars will renew, budgets will
be rewritten and perhaps by the time the
seasonal marketing rolls out again, we’ll be
able to heed its advice and fill our shopping
carts with holiday cheer.
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