A YouTube monologue by TJ Walker discussing the growing trend of corporate sponsorships in American weddings. Walker cites a Talker Research survey reporting high willingness among Americans to accept brand involvement (average U.S. wedding cost > $30,000; six in 10 would welcome sponsorship; one in three would invite a brand mascot; one in five would let a mascot officiate; one in six would wear a logo if the brand covered costs). He criticisms the commercialization of intimate ceremonies and argues for simpler, smaller weddings.
Chapters
Brand sponsored weddings. According to a new Talker research survey, weddings are going corporate. With the average American wedding Now costing over $30,000, six in 10Americans say they'd welcome corporate sponsorship to help pay for their big day. And they're serious about it. One in three would invite a brand mascot like the Geico gecko or Ronald McDonald to attend one. One in five would even let that mascot officially the ceremony. That just boggles the mind, you know, two people getting married, a serious thing, and there's Ronald McDonald giving the vows to people. And one in six would wear a logo on their wedding dress if the brand covered the entire cost. Respondents said brands would need to pay about two thirds of the experience to be included or all of it. Full creative control. It's a strange new twist in American romance. A wedding where love meets locos. What's the real message here? Brightzilla needs to get off the steroids. The idea that we all have to have $100,000 wedding on our big day or it's not real and therefore let's whore ourselves out to every corporation and logo to make it happen is bizarre. It's weird. It's time to say timeout. How about having a small intimate gathering of close friends and family and a piece of cake? You might be much happier that way. Let's look at some of the facts in more detail here. The average wedding cost in America last year, $30,000. Again, shockingly, one in three people according to this survey. It's something called a talker research survey. You can look it up. One in three said they would invite a corporate mascot as a guest. Okay, a guest is one thing. Not necessarily to deliver the vows, but one in five said they would let the mascot officiate. It just makes me wonder, like where do we draw the line? And I don't want to sound like a purist. Look, I am a so called Amazon influencer and I do endorsements of certain products that I happen to like and happen to use. And I've even brought my family members into it. If we have a product we like, we just talk about it, show it, and then when someone buys it on Amazon, we get a teeny sliver. But I didn't do it on my wedding day. At full disclosure, I have. I've had two weddings. One, a lot of money was spent. Another one, no money was spent. The one that a lot of money was spent lasted about three months. The one where no money was spent is now in its second fully into its second decade. So you can draw from that what you will. But you, you know, corporate logos could appear on stationery, napkins, cocktails. Now we're used to going to a bar and the glass maybe has a logo, has a Coca Cola logo. That seems pretty innocuous. But if this is your big day, do you want to spend all your time going around chasing brand deals? It also makes. It makes me worry that it just keeps on creeping and keeps on creeping. Are we that far away from when people are going to put on Olin fans their wedding night and sell sponsorships or memberships so people can watch their wedding night together? And it could be an X rated, porn only fans type of thing. People, maybe they're already doing that. And I'm so clueless, I don't know. But what would you do for your wedding? I'm curious as to whether these survey results are even valid. Would you want a corporate sponsor for your wedding? Would it make the whole day more special? Or would it make it seem kind of weird, kind of tainted, kind of odd? And I would toss out what's wrong with having a simple wedding? Now I understand. You see images all day long. If you just got engaged and you're on Instagram and I can only imagine all day long you're seeing pictures of wedding gowns that cost 10, 15, 20, $30,000. You are seeing images of Taylor Swift's ring the size of a football and you're thinking, maybe I can get my fiance to upgrade. How do we afford that? Let's get a corporate sponsor. So we do live in a world where social media is designed to poke you, prod you, and make you feel inadequate about your own wedding. About your wedding, your engagement ring, about your entertainment, about the flower. I mean, you could spend $50,000. You can spend $100,000 on flowers if you want to get crazy. Does anyone really care about the flat? You could say you do. Okay, It's a different world. Not everyone has to be the same. Look, I'm a capitalist. I do believe in capital. I'm a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not someone who wants the government to ban huge swaths of the economy unless there's absolute, absolute compelling reason. I don't want someone setting up a business allowing you to sell your limbs or to sell your organs to make money. I do think there should be some limits of how capitalism interacts with humans and bodies. So I'm not saying this should be illegal. But just because something is legal doesn't mean it's a good idea. Doesn't mean it's a good sign for society. Again, as I mentioned, I'm pro capitalism, but does it have to intrude the most intimate moments of your entire life? This, to me, seems to be going too far.
