– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

it's that time of year again companies

are slashing prices cutting back costs

and we buy in by the masses all in the

name of a good deal

retailers opening their doors earlier

than ever to a crush of frenzied

shoppers Lord by seductive doorbuster

deals but these manic scenes of shoppers

stampeding into big-box stores on Black

Friday is something we see less of each

year as retailers have spread out sales

in an effort to increase profits and

likely decrease flat-screen TV related

injuries there's less of a mad rush you

know not every store is getting those

frantic and crazy crowds like they used

to yeah take a look at this video a news

crew set up inside a store ready to

capture the mad rush the doors open and

it's just one guy that's it

but it's hard to imagine that we ever

got so low as to fight over TVs hair

straighteners and furbies like some

fight for access to clean water they're

gonna beat me inside that mop and keep

me from getting my kids Christmas

presents

while the crowds have dispersed Black

Friday spending has remained consistent

historically the weekend after

Thanksgiving marked the unofficial start

to the holiday shopping season there's a

common myth out there that the term

Black Friday is used to describe the

time when companies go from being in the

red or unprofitable to being in the

black or profitable but this isn't true

the first time we see being used is in

the 1960s by police officers in

Philadelphia talking about the increased

traffic to the city it wasn't until the

early 2000s that retailers borrowed the

term to help promote their sales and

turn holiday shopping into a holiday

itself only Macy's could give America

parade on Thanksgiving and the biggest

sale of the year on Black Friday the

not-so-secret strategy used by marketers

to promote Black Friday Cyber Monday or

prime day sales they get you in the door

by drastically reducing prices on a few

desirable items like tech gadgets or

electronics but they hope you'll leave

with much more than you planned a filled

shopping basket

target CEO Brian Cornell says what I've

been most interested in is what's in the

basket you look at the people who you

know came out for a specific but then

they've actually taken the time to shop

for other categories which is really

important the fear here is seeing

baskets or carts with one item unlike

Brian's anxiety of shoppers coming into

a store and buying exactly what they

came for

my fear is that people are going to be

going further into credit card debt

buying [ __ ] that they don't need the

average consumer in America

already has over $15,000 worth of credit

card debt and it's only getting worse my

hunch is that most of the shoppers this

Black Friday are also among the 80

percent of the country living paycheck

to paycheck

I am racking up those credit-card bills

but who can resist Black Friday deals

the ones that aren't struggling are big

businesses and they've been using that

money to spend on marketing meetings

consumer analysts and data researchers

and it's been paying off

very few shopping carts leave stores or

online checkouts with just one item in

it walk into a thoughtfully designed

store and you're fighting against a

difficult tide culturally it's become

known as the target effect the result of

going into a store intending to buy a

few things and leaving with much more as

strong as the in-store techniques have

gotten that doesn't compare to the

litany of approaches used by their

online counterparts among them brands

track your every move and strategically

serve you ads leading up to their peak

shopping season they offer free shipping

on orders over thirty to a hundred

dollars influencing you to make one or

two more purchases to reach the sale

limit and as social media sites work to

make advertisers happy they're reducing

friction to sales by implementing tags

with direct links to products and that

doesn't even skim the surface but most

consumers don't care in fact they're

asking for it how else in the world

could you explain 1.6 million people

opting to follow Old Navy on Instagram

if the world ever needed a support group

I know 1.6 million people who could use

it

shopping has become a pastime I recently

came across a genre of video on YouTube

called shopping halls where people sit

down and share all the things they

purchased that day it's usually a lot

today's video is there's nothing like

this black reddit hall I go hard on

Black Friday it's primitive in a way

scouring malls like hunters and

gatherers biologically they must

experience the same feeling our

ancestors got hunting through the jungle

fighting for their lives and hauling

back a lion to their village okay maybe

not

here's the thing these companies care

more about their bottom line than yours

and while I wish they apply more ethical

practices to the way they made and sold

their products that's likely not gonna

happen any time soon so we need to take

responsibility over our own purchases

their job is to make more money to keep

their investors and board members happy

but you don't have to buy in by being

more intentional with our purchases we

can put more value on the few items we

do decide to buy this holiday season we

can embrace what Juliet Shore calls

true materialism we are too

materialistic in the everyday sense of

the word and we are not at all

materialistic enough in the true sense

of the word so I use the term true

materialism we need to be true

materialists like really care about the

materiality of goods in the fast fashion

world we buy and throw out we don't care

about the actual materiality of the

goods what matters is their symbolic

meaning that's why we discard them so

rapidly because they lose social value

now I'm not suggesting that we cancel

the holidays and entirely get rid of

gift-giving but I do think that we can

rethink the status quo here are a few

tips that might help this holiday season

instead of buying gifts for everyone in

your family suggest doing a secret santa

coming from a family with seven siblings

yes I grew up Catholic this is a great

way to make sure we weren't just buying

a bunch of crap for our family we were

being really intentional and buying one

specific gift for one specific person it

saved us money it saved us time and it

also create

a really memorable gift-giving

experience gift experiences instead of

things have a conversation with your

partner about how you want to exchange

gifts now and I have this conversation

every year about whether we're gonna be

giving gifts to each other or not some

years we do some years we don't this

year since we're going to Sydney twice

we've got a lot of travel we've got so

much going on it just feels like extra

stress that we don't need because we

have everything that we need we have

everything that we want already so

giving a gift would just be to continue

a tradition that we're not really that

into so instead of giving gifts what

we're doing is setting aside a day for

each of us to take each other out to

dinner

or make each other a home-cooked meal if

you're trying to save money this holiday

season and you've got some extra time

you can make something create homemade

candles or batch make cookies I'll never

forget one year NAT made me a scarf I

should say that she tried to make me a

scarf because what she ended up giving

me was a ball of yarn and a half made

scarf and to this day it's one of the

favorite gifts that I've ever gotten not

that I kept it but it made me way

happier than any present she could have

purchased at the store it's easy to get

swept up with the onslaught of

advertising this time of year brands

will have you believe that you will

never see another deal like this hurry

up it's a limited time offer only while

supplies last up to 60 70 even 80

percent off but the truth is that these

things won't provide sustainable

happiness and the best deal you'll ever

get this Black Friday is not buying into

the hype

people have asked me quite a bit why I

don't do advertising on this channel and

the reason is videos like this I want to

be able to criticize the status quo

advertising and continue to make fun of

Old Navy and while it might not make the

biggest difference in your day to not

have to sit through a fifteen or thirty

second it makes me really happy to know

that thousands and thousands of ads

haven't been served because I've decided

to take a different path if you want to

support my channel I've set up a patreon

account but I'm not just asking for your

money I've created tears that get you

access to content like my patreon only

AM a podcast and I also make videos on

minimalism filmmaking and business learn

things like how to grow an audience or

how to tell a great story through film

when I started this YouTube channel over

a year ago I never could have imagined

that it would have taken me here seeing

you guys in the comments every Monday

when I post a video seeing the

positivity the discussion around how to

live a meaningful life has truly and

honestly blown me away and it drives me

to make videos to put everything I have

into these videos every single week so

there's no material item no gifts that

could have been greater than that so I

want to thank you guys so much for being

on this journey with me and I look

forward to continuing to tell stories

and have this conversation with you for

the next Monday's to come

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
slash /slæʃ/ B2	verb - to reduce something by a large amount
frenzied /ˈfrenzid/ C1	adjective - wildly excited or uncontrolled
stampede /stæmˈpiːd/ B2	verb - to rush wildly in a mass noun - a sudden rush of animals or people, usually caused by fear
profit /ˈprɒfɪt/ B1	noun - a financial gain verb - to obtain an advantage or benefit
frantic /ˈfræntɪk/ B2	adjective - wild or distraught with fear, anxiety, or other emotion
capture /ˈkæptʃər/ B2	verb - to succeed in recording, depicting, or expressing accurately
disperse /dɪˈspɜːrs/ C1	verb - to distribute or spread over a wide area
consistent /kənˈsɪstənt/ B2	adjective - acting or done in the same way over time
myth /mɪθ/ B2	noun - a widely held but false belief or idea
promote /prəˈməʊt/ B1	verb - to support or actively encourage
desirable /dɪˈzaɪərəbl/ B2	adjective - wished for as being pleasing or useful
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ B2	noun - a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease
resist /rɪˈzɪst/ B1	verb - withstand the action or effect of.
thoughtfully /ˈθɔːtfəli/ B2	adverb - in a way that shows consideration for the needs or feelings of other people
intentional /ɪnˈtenʃənəl/ B2	adjective - done on purpose; deliberate
sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbl/ B2	adjective - able to be maintained at a certain rate or level
criticize /ˈkrɪtɪsaɪz/ B2	verb - to express disapproval of someone or something
meaningful /ˈmiːnɪŋfʊl/ B1	adjective - having a serious, important, or useful quality or purpose