Detrot’s parade has been around for a very long time and when various networks have shown all the Thanksgiving parades, Detroit has always been featured because it is one of the better ones.
However, this year is the first time I’ve seen the “America’s” tag and I thought it was stupid. It reminded me too much of various idiotic sport teams branding themseves “America’s Team.”
Babbitry, indeed.
Interestingly, the Dallas Cowboys’ didn’t make up the term “America’s Team.” But GM Tex Schramm liked the name when he heard it and immediately embraced it.
Long ago, the Detorit Lions were the only NFL team that played on Thanksgiving every year. Schramm made sure the Cowboys did it too, because he was smart enough and prescient enough to realize, even in the Sixties, that playing before a national TV audience every year was a fabulous marketing opportunity.
The Hudson’s parade has been going on for years; they used to show it every Thanksgiving when I was growing up in the 60s (and I was in the NYC area). One network would have Macy’s, another would have four different ones. I seem to remember Philadelphia (Shriners?) in addition to Hudson’s in Detroit.
America’s Parade? Why not? They can call it whatever they please.