Happy Thanksgiving!
While I was preparing this post for publication, I was checking my email, and I found this:
It’s not the retailer that’s important, it is the concept of Black Friday having a “TM” next to it. That’s right, it is a trademarked sale name. I found out earlier this week that the use of the expression “Black Friday” to describe sales the day after Thanksgiving is only something to officially be coined in the early 2000s. Prior to that time, the day was called “Black Friday,” but not in the official sense. Commercials during this time referred to it as the “After Thanksgiving Sale,” as both today and tomorrow’s commercials will demonstrate.
Today’s commercial (from the magical year of 1986) comes from JC Penney, and is for their After Thanksgiving Sale.
So, let’s talk turkey…
…or to one (I don’t judge), and look at some awesome Day After Thanksgiving sales!
We’ve got some jewelry, mom nightgowns, kids clothes, and sweaters.
Check it all out by clicking play!
Did you notice within this that the word “Doorbuster” was never mentioned, that there was no mention of any sales happening on Thanksgiving, and that the stores aren’t open at some ridiculous time? What a great time to be alive – there was a day that shopping on the day after Thanksgiving didn’t involve trampling people, or abandoning Thanksgiving celebrations to either work a sale or shop at one (because heavily discounted everything is far more important that spending time with family, you know).
Tomorrow, we move forward to the 1990s, which was still pre-“Black Friday,” to a different retailer having all the sales you could ever need!
Have a great Thanksgiving, and stay tuned – my Thanksgiving-themed article is coming up later on today!