The poor things are at it again.
Thousands if not millions of put-upon Hong Kong guys trudging aimlessly around Central clutching the requisite flowers, (show your girlfriend you love her in a completely new and creative way: By propping up Hong Kong’s Useless and Tacky Gifts industry and leaving yet another huge and indelible carbon footprint! Yee-ha!) showing off the fact that they can afford to spend $1000 on something that actually costs $15.
Another victory for lemmings.
Another opportunity for shopping malls to cover their shop windows in useless crap; a couple of weeks ago all red and gold, now pink. There’s no need to rant on about how ridiculous Valentine’s day is and how it forces poor mugs to part with even more of their hard earned cash to satisfy the three or four geezers who own Hong Kong.
No, I want to draw your attention to an interesting little aspect of the other big seller of the day apart from imported flowers (apparently the militia had to be called in to guard the export of roses from Kenya) – chocolate.
What better way to tell your girlfriend you love her than making her fat and setting her up for a heart attack and diabetes? And what chocolate could be better than the one I found in the over-priced, packed to the rafters City Super, (Hong Kong people are so brand conscious that they are willing to pay four times the price of a normal household product just to be able to carry it home in the feted City Super bag) called
“romance chocolate:”
Romantic, wouldn’t you say? I mean, what woman wouldn’t get all warm, fuzzy and in the mood by watching other women undress?
Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against porn. Many of my closest relatives are porn stars. Still, although chocolate is supposed to be wildly erotic, as a heterosexual woman I kind of think the wrappers take away most of the joy eating a $150 piece of chocolate, if any, I would have felt.
Yeah yeah, sour grapes. Yes, nobody bought me one rose wrapped in so much paper a street sleeper could have lived under it for years, nor any chocolate costing the monthly budget of a Hong Kong family. But if anyone should attempt such a thing, what’s wrong with March 23rd? June 7th? October 17th?
Or just any day of the year, as long as it wasn’t dictated by cynical, money-grubbing, faux emotion-inducing HK industrialists that he should do so?
Some men are soooo sad by thinking that the price tag somehow conveys the depth and intensity of their feelings.
Great article!
no, the Valentine’s Day actually serves a useful purpose. It helps to determine who is an easily manipulated moron and cross them off the list. This also applies to the other side of the fence – rose/chocolate/present-demanding insecure, sad, do-you-love-me-cooing dumbos.
haha… what about a red helium heart shaped balloon with “passion” printed on one side, and http://www.pricewaterhousecoopers.com (in an obnoxiously large, ubiquitously visible font) on the other? have to add a little corporate swag to what clearly wasn’t a commercialized enough holiday already…
Now there’s an idea! Don’t know why it hasn’t been done already. I’m sure it’s also possible to grow roses so their petals form a company logo.
It’s going to be done. julia, take out copyright quick!