3 A substantial increase in the death rate from unintentional falls has recently been reported among older Americans. 1, 2 The annual direct and indirect cost of fall injuries is expected to reach $55 billion (in 2007 U.S. Each year, one in three Americans aged 65 years and older falls. Scientists have observed that humanity, by virtue of climate change, has begun to diminish autumn itself – leaves scorched by hotter summers don’t turn glorious hues, pumpkin crops struggle, and in many states it already feels like summer simply runs headlong into winter.Falls among older adults are a serious public health problem. What’s left to wonder is if, like “peak oil”, we have reached “peak fall”. The company has a verified Twitter account that speaks in the “ voice” of its pumpkin spice latte, and runs the “Leaf Raker’s Society”, a two-year-old, 34,000 member-strong “secret” Facebook group “that celebrates fall all year long” and is – I can vouch – extremely wholesome. Starbucks, having launched the pumpkin spice latte in 2004, is the company with the strongest ownership claim on the season, and happily collapses boundaries between corporate product and cherished tradition wherever possible. According to data from Nielsen and Forbes, the “pumpkin spice industrial complex” was a more than $600m market in 2018.
A procession of pumpkin spice items hit shelves each year: most recently Spam, peanut butter, and lattes for dogs. Marketers certainly seem to be trying to test that theory. Unlike Christmas or Valentine’s Day, which are understood to have “ true meanings” (piety, generosity, love) that commodification can cheapen and obscure, “there’s not some kind of higher principle of autumn that you can do violence to by commodifying it,” he says. Zentner, however, believes there is no better time than autumn to consciously indulge in consumerism. Perhaps it’s the very tension between fall’s encouragement of thoughtfulness after a carefree summer, and its pre-winter, harvest-bounty-inflected consumerist frenzy that make us go a little wild. “There is the idea that seasonal scarcity is something that gets customers excited, so the fact that something is only available for a certain amount of time increases demand.” “There’s some evidence that nostalgia makes people a little less price sensitive,” he says. “Buying stuff is always there, lurking in the places where we feel too much and don’t know what to do with those feelings,” writes Syme.Īccording to Bruce Clark, an associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University, nostalgia is a particularly effective marketing tool. Lacking a better outlet for our complicated emotions, we head to the store to pick up a latte or seasonal wreath. We may be sentimental, remembering long-gone school days or how excited we used to be as children, knowing Halloween and Thanksgiving were round the corner.
Come fall, we may feel a heady mix of nostalgic yearning, renewed optimism, and abstract melancholy.
In a recent edition of her perfume-focused newsletter the Dry Down, the writer Rachel Syme observed that the feelings fall evokes are often intense and ambiguous.
AUTUMN FALLS DEATH FULL
Every year, beginning on Labor Day, Zentner transforms his home into a sort of autumn empire, full of dried corn and stuffed ravens from Michaels. Yet fall isn’t just a time for quiet contemplation it’s also a lifestyle.
“Nature celebrates death in this very tangible way,” he says. “I have always loved fall,” he says, “but it’s only recently I’ve come to understand why.”įor Zentner, a former “goth kid”, fall is the ideal time to reflect on mortality, and appreciate that decay is both inevitable and beautiful. The young adult author Jeff Zentner, or, as his friends call him, “the lord of autumn”, is a fall superfan with decorative gourds tattooed to his forearm and a love of cheap pumpkin spice candles. But why does autumn inspire such intensity of feeling? The autumn spirit, then, is clearly resilient. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to share this embarrassingly basic photo of myself /HiGKQgsm2y- Chelsea Gilson August 12, 2019 Whoever made #ChristianGirlAutumn trend, I love you.