Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 28, and in New York we attend a parade with giant balloons every year. A parade organized by the Macy’s store which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The first parade took place in November 1924. This year we are celebrating the 98th edition, because there was a short break during the Second World War.
If you don’t live in New York, you may have seen this parade in movies like Miracle on 34th Street or TV series like Seinfeld. Macy’s is a sort of Galeries Lafayette in operation since the 19th century, which has hundreds of stores across the country. The historic store is in New York and in 1924, a few employees with three floats, four musical groups and animals loaned by the Central Park Zoo paraded in front of about 10,000 spectators to celebrate the arrival of Christmas. Little by little, the event became national to the point of being broadcast live on television since the 1950s.
The famous balloons made their first appearance in 1927 and very quickly became one of the main attractions for the public. Initially, we let the balloons fly into the sky after the parade, but a plane almost crashed so we stopped this tradition. In 1997, one of them clung to a lamp post. Debris fell on a spectator, who spent 24 days in a coma with a broken skull. In November, the weather is not always good in New York, the wind can blow strong, for example. Dozens of people are responsible for guiding each balloon around New York. These balloons are usually shaped like a cartoon character. There will be around twenty in 2024 with new features like Goku from Dragon Ball, Spider-man, Minnie or the fire dog from Paw Patrol.
After 100 years, success continues. More than 20 million Americans turn on the television at 9 a.m., a public holiday, to watch this three-hour parade. Audiences have remained remarkably stable for 40 years, unlike the Oscars, for example. As a result, the NBC channel pays very high prices for retransmission rights, around 20 million dollars, and also charges very high prices for advertising, close to a million per 30-second spot.
Two million people also fill the sidewalks, often in the cold. It was -7 one year and on Thursday, it should rain a lot. The parade also includes marching bands from all over the country and artists who perform along the parade – around thirty this year including Jennifer Hudson. These artists are paid thanks to money paid by companies, several hundred thousand dollars, to have their float in the parade. There are 34 this year, including the Green Giant and Lego. The meeting is certainly commercial but unifying and is part of the tradition in tens of millions of American families. And as explained le New York Timesthis continued success can be explained in part by nostalgia, the parade has changed little over time, and the total absence of politics, unlike, once again, the Oscars.
