It used to be...(I mean, when I was a kid--you know when we walked up hills both ways...in the snow and worked 29 hours a day) ...that THE most exciting part of getting Chinese food was the fortune cookies. It always (o.k. usually) told you something that was positive that was going to happen to you. Wealth. Money. Fame. Fortune.
So, except that those childhood fortune cookies have led to years of therapy and exclamations of "But this isn't how my life is supposed to be! The fortune cookie on August 20, 1972 said so!" It helped give me reasons to be thrilled about Chinese food. I would savor those slips of paper and read them after I got rid of the migraine from the MSG. I digress.
I am amazed, however, that in 2016, however, while not "fortunes" per se, these messages seem to be written everywhere I look. Now, I know millennials don't handle criticism well, but my goodness! Must everything have an uplifting positive message? Let me explain....
Taco bell "sauce" No matter the "hot factor." There is a message. Not a "Buy Tums on the way home" but real, honest-to-goodness positive message. O.k. fine. And Starbuck's...everything. I get it. Everything is rainbows. Flowers. Unicorns....downloaded on a free app using SB free wi-fi!
A little backstory: I recently had a cold. Of course, it came at the time that I had several presentations for work. So, one morning on the way to work, I bought Hall's cough drops. I opened it only to find the first two cough drop messages of "A Pep Talk in Every Drop" and "Take Charge and Mean It!" Of course, that got me laughing....and then I started coughing some more. I think it is a built in marketing tool. Laugh at the stupidity of messages on cough drops. Cough. Need more cough drops. Not one said, "Don't laugh because menthol will be oozing out of your pores until you are 90.
Then, I went to get Jimmy John's sandwiches. A chain dedicated to the millennials, in my opinion. The stickers on the sandwiches I purchased were "I woke up like this" and "Peel for your meal" No comment. Just. No. Comment.
Jamba Juice. I'll stop.
Chipotle. Messages on Bags. Messages on Cups. Messages everywhere. Funny though how none of them said, "We spent money on marketing instead of..." Well, I'll leave it at that!
And let's wrap this up with the fast food version of chinese food...Panda Express. By far the most positive fortune cookies I've ever eaten. ...and, bonus points here....they don't taste like they were made in the 1900's like the ones I remember from my childhood days. Again, true fortunes, and the messages are similar to those in the 1970s. And thus, ladies and gentlemen....why I'm still in therapy.
So, except that those childhood fortune cookies have led to years of therapy and exclamations of "But this isn't how my life is supposed to be! The fortune cookie on August 20, 1972 said so!" It helped give me reasons to be thrilled about Chinese food. I would savor those slips of paper and read them after I got rid of the migraine from the MSG. I digress.
I am amazed, however, that in 2016, however, while not "fortunes" per se, these messages seem to be written everywhere I look. Now, I know millennials don't handle criticism well, but my goodness! Must everything have an uplifting positive message? Let me explain....
Taco bell "sauce" No matter the "hot factor." There is a message. Not a "Buy Tums on the way home" but real, honest-to-goodness positive message. O.k. fine. And Starbuck's...everything. I get it. Everything is rainbows. Flowers. Unicorns....downloaded on a free app using SB free wi-fi!
A little backstory: I recently had a cold. Of course, it came at the time that I had several presentations for work. So, one morning on the way to work, I bought Hall's cough drops. I opened it only to find the first two cough drop messages of "A Pep Talk in Every Drop" and "Take Charge and Mean It!" Of course, that got me laughing....and then I started coughing some more. I think it is a built in marketing tool. Laugh at the stupidity of messages on cough drops. Cough. Need more cough drops. Not one said, "Don't laugh because menthol will be oozing out of your pores until you are 90.
Then, I went to get Jimmy John's sandwiches. A chain dedicated to the millennials, in my opinion. The stickers on the sandwiches I purchased were "I woke up like this" and "Peel for your meal" No comment. Just. No. Comment.
Jamba Juice. I'll stop.
Chipotle. Messages on Bags. Messages on Cups. Messages everywhere. Funny though how none of them said, "We spent money on marketing instead of..." Well, I'll leave it at that!
And let's wrap this up with the fast food version of chinese food...Panda Express. By far the most positive fortune cookies I've ever eaten. ...and, bonus points here....they don't taste like they were made in the 1900's like the ones I remember from my childhood days. Again, true fortunes, and the messages are similar to those in the 1970s. And thus, ladies and gentlemen....why I'm still in therapy.