Don’t intend to rant, honestly….just to share a minor cultural bewilderment….
I honestly don’t get birthday cards. Well, I do get the idea of the card. What I find bemusing (and amusing) is the recurrent secretive ritual around it.
So every week or so some other dude (or dudett) from your office has a birthday and at some point someone will pass on his/her card for you to sign, and it’s always accompanied with a hush hush sign and a secretive street-pushers-like body language that says “shhhh, it’s X birthday card….shhhh…sign and pass on” 
Now, I always take a quick look at the greetings and they are all sweet and goodhearted but, also pretty generic and repetitive, so I find it really funny that some people pass it on with a secretive seriousness …
Any insights?
Comments 8
Personally, I like the little notes which people sign off in the card like “happy birthday you beer belly”. Or you’re 40 now go get naughty .. .etc. Those things are cherished.
Posted 10 Oct 2007 at 7:12 am ¶An old Creative Director of mine (Daren Kay at TMW) used this very insight - you stop getting Birthday cards as you get older - as the basis for a part of the Guinness RM strategy. We sent them Birthday cards. It worked like a charm - the love we got from a 40-year-old Guinness drinker for saying happy birthday was awesome.
Sainsbury’s also send Birthday cards, with a present (usually a box of chocolates or similar). You have to collect in store, obviously. But they regularly got redemption rates that made you wish people had birthdays more often.
Anyhow, I think Faris would see it is another example of “Phatic communication”.
Posted 10 Oct 2007 at 8:55 am ¶that is indeed very phatic - It’s basically to say, ‘hey, we’re thinking about you’ but thats also the crux of it - because everyone has birthday they can turn into something bland obvious and generic - so question is, how do you keep them relevant?
Posted 10 Oct 2007 at 4:09 pm ¶It is rather funny isn’t it? I’m not big on birthdays full-stop but am secretly rather chuffed when this happens to me…
Posted 12 Oct 2007 at 4:09 pm ¶chuffed? is this a good or bad thing?
Posted 19 Oct 2007 at 1:27 am ¶The trick is to know everyone well enough to put something a little bit personal on the card. That or write total nonsense.
Also I think people like doing it so they can read what other people write.
Posted 19 Oct 2007 at 11:20 am ¶Today is my son’s 27th birthday and I think he probably agrees that birthday cards are a strange and stupid custom, so I’m going to send him a link to this blogs! He likes blogs! Happy birthday, Keith!
Posted 14 Dec 2007 at 12:25 am ¶Yeah, ’specially since the last one I god scared the crap out of me. Looked like someone had taped a spider’s egg sack in there. Sheesh! Belly Button Lint indeed!
She’s right though, I do agree about the cards. better to just say it in person, or call.
Posted 14 Dec 2007 at 6:53 am ¶Post a Comment