Nick Scali review: Advertising

I intensely dislike the signs now appearing advertising “Black Friday Sales”.

No Australian wants to be gratuitously reminded of the awful bush fires that have have swept the south-east with increasing frequency, including Black Thursday, Black Friday, Black Saturday  (Vic 1851, 1939, 2009) Black Sunday (NSW 2013), and the widespread Black Summer fires of 2019/2020. Altogether these fires were responsible for at least 738 deaths.

Nor do Christians, for whom Black Friday is another name for Good Friday, which commemorates the day Jesus died on the cross. To quote the hymn, written by Sydney Carter in 1963 entitled 'The Lord of the Dance" and based on Luke 23: 44-46,

        "I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black.

         It's hard to dance with the devil on your back"

Christmas is approaching - a time for celebration. Why try to spoil it. Maybe the Americans have perverted the phrase "Black Friday" to promote shopping sales, but there is no reason whatsoever for Australians to blindly follow their insensitive ways.

When we are all expected to be politically correct, it beggars belief that the big stores can be so insensitive to the offence they must be causing to thousands, maybe millions, of Australians

By all means have sales in November, but please choose some other name. Why not simply “November Sales”.

Sincerely,

Rodney Baxter, Reid ACT