This morning at 2am involved a conversation about whether I would talk about Father’s Day today or the incredible movie I had just seen. Needless to say, I highly recommend the new Incredible Hulk movie, but I’ve elected to talk more about something that won’t be featured in every fan boy blog by lunchtime: holidays and branding.

There’s an ‘important’ holiday nearly every month of the year. Is this entirely necessary? Don’t get me wrong, I celebrate most of them, but at times I wonder why holidays are so popular.

Father’s Day always falls on a Sunday, but other holidays falling on Sundays still release us from work the following Monday. If anyone has a 4-day week next week, please let me send you my resume! Also, Father’s Day celebrates men around the world who should be celebrated every day, not just once per year with a cheesy Hallmark card. Still, though, we all flock to the malls and hardware stores trying to find the perfect gift and card with matching sentiment, falling into the trap of holiday advertising at the same time.

Ever since the first ad guru penned the term “Dads and Grads,” this weekend hasn’t been solely about spending time with Dad. It’s been about finding the perfect gift to celebrate the two groups’ accomplishments: grads for, well, graduating and dads for being their wonderful selves. I don’t have a problem with celebrating, but why did we have to commercialize our barbecues?

This is where branding comes in. We’ve branded the holiday. It’s no longer a time to sit back and celebrate Dad. Now, it’s a commercial holiday like Valentine’s Day or Christmas – retailers encourage the image because it means higher end-of-quarter revenue for them. Instead of buying Dad a new sweater or calling it good after you pick up the reciprocating saw from Sears, maybe we should sit back and pull the brand back a little bit and consider what exactly the holiday means.

Then again, I got my Dad something, too.