Is Marketing Responsible for the Commercialization of Christmas?

Like Dave Barry said in the below quote, the commercialization of Christmas has partly distracted people from the true meaning of Christmas. You can't escape the constant advertisements of sales by every retailer trying to leverage Christmas to help their bottom line.

The other side of the argument would say that marketing is just facilitating consumers to consume what they were planning to anyways or quote John O'Toole who said "Yes, I sell people things they don't need. I can't, however, sell them something they don't want. Even with advertising. Even if I were of a mind to."

I like what Starbucks is doing with the Pass the Cheer campaign in which they encourage people to perform random acts of kindness and show generosity. If more firms focused on social responsibility rather than deep discounts, it could build good will and shift the focus back on the important things, like spirituality, family, and world peace. Now Click here to go to Amazon.