week 9 post 1, commercializing halloween

While this blog primarily focuses on physical advertising found in Sweden during my travels, I also want to spend some time focusing on major commercialized elements in the States that are missing in Sweden. Halloween is a very commercialized holiday in the States and sends many families to the grocery store to purchase food items with temporarily imaged packaging of pumpkins, fall decor, ghosts, monsters, etc. When staying in Sweden and shopping at the grocery store before Halloween, it was easy to forget that the popular American holiday was approaching. Missing from the shelves were the overwhelming amount of themed products like candy corn, pumpkin shaped Reese's, and family size bags of mixed candy for trick-or-treaters. It surprised me that Sweden didn't get more excited for the holiday because of the cold, dark weather that has been here for some time. With the small interest in Halloween, besides that of small children, companies have little opportunity to commercialize it to boost sales. Once again, the simple life of the Swede's is what regulates products rather than the easily persuadable American culture that jumps at every opportunity to purchase themed products. Swedish people are simply not interested in over-consuming, and although they have small celebrations for Halloween, it is not a business endeavor. However, the approach of All Saint's Day has given markets the boost in candle sales, but the candles are not in any way decorated or branded. The candles are very functional for the celebration where graveyards are visited, but easy to miss that they are intended for All Saint's Day had a Swede not told me so. Products have more of a transparency, allowing for many uses because of their lack of temporary themes.