New Job Creation: What Can We Expect?

RI-EDG64-182 Sign twirler Ray. (Photo credit: e_pics)

Statue of Liberty? (Photo credit: Theophilus Photography)

Recently Seen on Facebook:

I'm curious how many jobs "created" in the last six years involve sign-waving or standing roadside in an embarrassing costume.

      As you have undoubtly have, I have also seen the sign twirlers, placard holders, and costumed chararacters advertising tax preparation services, new housing developments, or what have you.   Human advertising devices have been around for centuries.   Strangely in our age of ever-increasing technology there seems to be more use of old fashioned advertising techniques.

       In the decades before the 90's I don't recall seeing that much of this type of advertising.  I'm sure it was out there.  I probably wasn't paying that much attention or just didn't notice, but I don't think that there was as much sign carrying for the purpose of advertising as there is now.

       When I was a kid back in the 50's and 60's I associated sandwich-board advertising (a person carrying two large advertising placards front and back) with the depression.  I only saw it in old movies and cartoons.  I can't recall ever seeing a person in my real life walking the streets wearing a sandwich-board.

       After I moved to Los Angeles in 1991 I began seeing the human street advertising on an increasing basis as each year went by.  Maybe it's the nature of advertising in car crazy L.A.   It's one way of catching the attention of all the people who are on the streets.  Sign twirling and crazy costumes usually gets a second look if not a prolonged stare from those drawn by the spectacle.

       Maybe I'm just being more observant in the past few years, but lately I think I've seen more purveyors of street advertising than ever before.  Often I can look out my back bedroom window and see them across the street.  They're almost always on the corners of the major intersection nearest where I live.  They seem to be just about everywhere I go.

        Perhaps the increase in unemployment has flooded the market with more bodies willing to be human advertising devices.   I'm not sure how many new sign twirler employment agencies have opened in recent years, but I'm sure those businesses have been experiencing a boom as they take the desperately unemployed off the streets to put them back on the streets.

       I say desperately because to me one would have to be somewhat desperate to take a job of that nature.  There are so many downsides I can see to that job.  For one thing there's the bathroom issue.  That might mean an increase in business in adult diapers.  I hope not.

       It's good to see the job market opening up and Americans going back to work.  You can't outsource sign-twirling or street side waving dressed as an outlandish character.   All of the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam imitators advertising tax preparation services almost makes my heart swell up with patriotic pride.  Well, maybe not quite, but it's exciting to see Americans going back to work .

       Just another observation for whatever it's worth:   Most of the sign wielding folks I've seen on the street corners of late are advertising clearance sales for stores going out of business.  Make of that what you will.

        Do you see wavers and sign-twirlers in the area where you live?    Have you ever done a job like this or known someone else who has?     Would you do a job like this for minimum wage?

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Advertising -- ABC's of Marketing

Badge art by Ada Z from Collagepodge.com

       Advertising is an integral part of promotion.  Typically advertising is  paid for or at least requires some sort of investment in materials.  The purpose of advertising is to create awareness of what I will refer to as product throughout this series.   The advertising also provides knowledge, branding, intrigue, and hype.

       For the A to Z Challenge I started a blog devoted to the event and gave the event a name that was easy to remember.   In November I enlisted the creative skills of artist Ada Z to develop a logo that we could use as a badge to be used on the A to Z Blog and for participants to use on their own blogs to identify them as part of the A to Z community.   This event has been being advertised on the A to Z Blog, the blogs of the Challenge co-hosts, and many of the blogs of participants.  All advertising in our case has been free.

        If you are an author or a creator of some unique product you will need to resort to various forms of advertising in order to get your name out in the public eye.  This is likewise true if you are a business owner or even involved in an organization such as a church or social service provider.

         Free advertising is nice but not always easy to get.  In order to get your product before more people you will need to decide on an advertising budget.  Start small and choose your advertising platforms wisely.  Do as much research as you can before making a decision so you don't squander your budget in useless places.

My Letter A honoree is Ada Z.   

         Ada Zdanowicz is an multi-media artist in New Jersey.  Her specialties are collage and video.   She can be found at her website collagepodge.com.  Thank you Ada for the A to Z logo, promo video, and other additional help you have given to the A to Z Challenge.

A also stands for Alliterative Allomorph:

At her blog Alliterative Allomorph Jessica Bell will be having a drawing every two days during April.  She will be pulling lucky winners from the comments on her posts.  Be sure to stop by her blog and also visit her music website.

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Why Halloween Is Important to U.S. Economy

           Halloween gets a bad rap from some.  For others Halloween is a favorite event day. However, for most of us it's just another day that we make a big deal out of-- there's a big build up, then it comes, and then it's  gone, and that's that. A lot of us probably don't give much thought to that somewhat silly event called Halloween. But what if the celebration were gone?  What if some of the anti-Halloween extremists got their ways and Halloween was outright banned?  I think it would be devastating to the U.S. economy.
           Retail business has a dependency on special events and holidays. Indeed, some businesses strictly cater to events and other nonessentials. Most people like to have fun and set aside some days that are special. Halloween has become one of those days and is now a tradition, not only in the U.S., but also in many places throughout the world.  There are many products and services that are sold in relation to Halloween.  If these parts of the economy were taken away it could be financially devastating not only for the days leading up to Halloween, but also throughout the year. Howso?  Let me explain.
           Starting with the obvious, all the candy, costumes, decorations, cards, and other elements associated with the event day make up a significant portion of sales by stores ranging from Walmart and your local supermarket to the various costume shops and other event-related businesses such as card and gift shops. Any periods that create boosts in sales for these merchandisers are going to be welcomed. There is also an effect of maintaining a continuity of habit.  Merchandisers have a need to keep the momentum of spending ongoing as a raison d'etre to stay in business.  When customer participation declines, sales fall flat, employees are laid off, and businesses eventually close.  Therefore, one event leads to another.  One special store sale leads to the next-- Special Summer Savings!, Christmas in July!, Huge Labor Day Sale!, Before and After Christmas sales, and while you're at it you might as well throw in Fall Sales featuring the event of Halloween.  Adding excitement to the shopping experiences helps draw in the customers.
          Advertising also needs the vavoom of the new.  People get bored easily. New trends take hold, improved products become enticing, fashions change, and not much stays the same. The masses need the bread, but they also want the circuses.  So as the seasons change, the holidays and events change. If we had Valentine's Day every month, the event would get old and become stale.  Instead we have a whole series of event days that are widely different and celebrating different themes.  Then just like having to check out the next big hit or buy the next fad, most of us feel the compulsion to get ready for whatever event is coming up next. And there you go-- we starting feeding more of our money to the beast of the providers of consumer product and the businesses turn to the advertising media to keep us all informed and excited.  Two major players of the economy -- suppliers and promoters--- are vitalized by Halloween and that's definitely good for the economy in general.
          Granted many of the jobs generated for the season are only temporary, but short-term is better than no term at all.  It all means dollars infused into the economic cycle.  Temp guy or girl can pay some bills for another month, go to a movie, eat at a restaurant, and buy a few Christmas presents.  And hopefully somewhere along the way some of those dollars will end up in your pocket so you can do the same thing.  That's seasonal work.  Some people like it that way, fits their lifestyle maybe, and some people have to have it that way because they just need to work wherever and whenever.  Whatever the case may be it can all be put under the label of Economic Stimulus and why would anyone want to discourage that, especially in the current economic situation.
         Putting the impact of Halloween in a broader perspective, the event day is not totally seasonal for many.  Some companies that are in the business of Halloween prepare year round for the season.  For example, the costume and accessory suppliers work throughout the year developing and manufacturing product.  Factories and small backroom operations employ thousands of workers to build up inventories for the merchandise to be shipped to the sellers.  Truckers and other transporters move the product. Warehouse workers stay busy with storage and distribution. There are people in sales, administration, promotions, etc who are working continously to make sure their product is on the shelf and appealing to the consumer.  After all we are talking about the Halloween Industry and noone should be wanting another industry in America to be facing crisis.  Incidentally, some may argue that a lot of Halloween merchandise is manufactured outside the U.S.   This is certainly true-- I am not thrilled with this and don't really want to get into this topic here--but there is probably more Halloween merchandise made in the U.S.A. than that of other industries such as the toy or electronic industry.  Even when things are made in other countries there is some economic benefit derived by us in our country.
          Halloween is the basis for a major industry force that helps drive not only our economy but also that of other countries.  Here I have explained some of the more obvious aspects relating to the supply chain of the products involved the festive occasion of Halloween.  Tomorrow I would like to continue with some of the more obscure things that contribute to the Halloween economy. 
           Please tell me what you think.  Any Halloween haters out there--I'd love to hear your opinion about what I've said so far.  Have I missed anything related to the obvious topics discussed above?  If you have any personal experience with anything mentioned in this post or would like to provide some more specific evidence or examples please post them in the comments.