How Smart Marketing Once Moved a National Holiday
In the middle of the Great Depression, when the American economy was barely breathing, a strange thing happened. Marketing changed a national holiday.Since Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, it had always been celebrated on the last Thursday of November. But in 1939, that long-standing tradition created a real problem for retailers.The last Thursday fell unusually late, leaving only 24 shopping days until Christmas. In the middle of the Great Depression, when many Americans could barely...