Birthday Reminder

Yes, my birthday is coming up this month and no, I am not asking you to remember it or send me a present. Nonetheless, it must be my ignorance of the current marketing trends/tactics/gimmicks. I noticed in my recent mail (and my twin sister's) that a lot of companies/merchants/organizations had send me some sort of "birthday card". When you open it, you realised it contains some kind of discounts/points/vouchers for their products/services. While some are nicely designed, others are pretty terrible and I remember one for my sister, which was from a very exclusive fashion brand, looks more like a funeral card than a birthday card.

Rather than marketing materials, they almost serve like a timely reminder that we are so poor/lonely that no one else (i.e. your friends/family) care about your birthday, not to mention your birthday present, except you can use those discounts/points/vouchers to get yourself something from them. It is ironic but I believe the only birthday card that I am going to receive this year would be from them, even though I neither am/feel lonely/poor.

So much for birthday reminder, it could have a opposite meaning to a lot of ppl. Maybe the marketing ppl can be more subtle in their thinking.

And sorry, your promotion on the card are not even close to give me a happy birthday.

(p.s. Apologize/Sorry for using some many "/" here..)