The other Eid

The second Eid is about a fortnight away, expected in the first week of June depending on the sighting, and half of what I see planned for it is the first Eid again.

Same brief, same clothes, same long table, same greeting in the feed with the dates changed.

They were never selling the same thing. Eid al-Fitr closes a month of restraint, and it closes it with new clothes, gifts, visits and photographs. It is a spending occasion, and every retailer knows the choreography by heart.

Eid al-Adha is a different act. It is the sacrifice, the butcher booked weeks ahead, the meat divided and most of it given away. Hajj is expected in the same days, so part of the audience is not at home at all. The exams running right now end just before it, so the family that travels has bought its tickets already and is counting down to a departure, not shopping for an occasion. In the Gulf the airport is the busiest room in the country that week.

The household money goes elsewhere, then. Into the animal, or a share of one. Into flights and what the trip costs at the other end. Into the relatives being visited rather than the guests being hosted.

A party dress advertised into that is sold to somebody standing in a queue with a boarding pass.

Which makes the real job for most brands smaller and less flattering than a campaign. Being open when the street is empty. Being findable at an odd hour by somebody packing, or driving, or staying behind. Delivering to an address that is not the usual one, and saying almost nothing while doing it.

The first Eid rewards the brand that shows up loudly. The second rewards the one that is simply there.