What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is historically the day after Thanksgiving. On Black Friday, stores offer exclusive deals to kickstart the holiday shopping. Black Friday originally began the friday after Thanksgiving in the 1950s when people would flood into Philadelphia to watch the annual Army-Navy football game and also do Holiday shopping in the city. It was referred to as Black Friday because it was a day of chaos in the city. Advertisements were created in a surplus knowing an influx of people will be in the city. Therefore, making advertising the creator of Black Friday.
How Black Friday has evolved
Black Friday was created to only be the day after Thanksgiving in which companies offered huge discounts. However, companies have used the traction of holiday shoppers by expanding Black Friday into many days, even weeks after Thanksgiving. Companies advertise Black Friday deals as week long deals, rather than just a one day deal in order to give shoppers more time to participate. As a result of this change, new days such as Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday have been generated. These days offer similar Black Friday deals but extend into deals for the entire Holiday season.
How advertising changed Black Friday
Advetising has been a fundamental reason for the success of Black Friday. Through TV commercials, social media campaigns, and online advertisements, advertising has been the primary way companies promote their deals. Black Friday advertisements usually start coming out in October in newspapers, retailers websites, online advertisements, and commercials. Advertisements are used across every medium and platform in order to reach the audience and inform them about the Black Friday deals. Advertising today looks a lot different than in the past, with the rise of social media, advertising has shifted to accommodate the audience. Through advertisements placed between posts on the feed and stories, brands are able to interrupt the usual content of who someone is following with recommended products.Through social media advertisements and campaigns, companies use their social media platforms to advertise new products, sales, or just their company in general. The average person spends about 2.5 hours per day scrolling through social media, therefore, giving companies the opportunity to put their advertisements where the customer is. In 2021, shoppers spent $8.9 billion online shopping Black Friday deals, making it the biggest shopping day in America. Advertising is notoriously known for targeting customers on this huge spending day for consumers. Black Friday has been around for over 70 years, however, as times change advertisers must adapt in order to keep up with the growing demand of consumers.