it seems to (commonly not always) serve SOME function
Hmmm. I'd want to see some figures to support the idea that it really does 'work' (for some definition of 'work'), otherwise your argument is just a variant on "Well there's got to be a reason for it, otherwise people wouldn't do it", which IMHO is a Very Dangerous Assumption.
I should probably do more research. OTOH, while it would be easy to measure "cost of event", "money raised", "profit made for charity", "increase in custom for local businesses" etc., it is much harder to measure things like "increased positive brand awareness" or "decreased guilt among the middle classes". :-} (That's not to say it's not possible to apply objective measurements to these things, but I almost certainly don't have the resources to do it!)
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Date: 2010-05-14 02:56 pm (UTC)Hmmm. I'd want to see some figures to support the idea that it really does 'work' (for some definition of 'work'), otherwise your argument is just a variant on "Well there's got to be a reason for it, otherwise people wouldn't do it", which IMHO is a Very Dangerous Assumption.
I should probably do more research. OTOH, while it would be easy to measure "cost of event", "money raised", "profit made for charity", "increase in custom for local businesses" etc., it is much harder to measure things like "increased positive brand awareness" or "decreased guilt among the middle classes". :-} (That's not to say it's not possible to apply objective measurements to these things, but I almost certainly don't have the resources to do it!)