Octoberfest/Orktoberfest/Ocsober

I know I normally stick to looking at Brisbane, local events and photography, and while the following doesn't exactly look at these, it does look at events taking place this month. It seems these days that months of the year are being adopted by different events or charities. Of course we are all familiar with Oktoberfest, a glorious German tradition that had been adopted throughout the globe. Over the last few years we have also become familiar with Movember, raising money for a great cause. This year however I have seen the clash of the October festivals.

Black Forrest Cafe Restaurant (Highgate Hill)

Tradtionally October has been a month long salute to good beer, good friends and good times. I myself have participated in beer tastings, wonderful meals at the Black Forrest Cafe (Highgate Hill), and general revellry. When I started seeing the media for Ocsober I became a little intrigued. And then I heard about Orktoberfest. Yes Orks, Warhammer 40K Orks to be precise.


So what are these events on this month?


According to the Ocsober Website - 
"Ocsober is a fundraising initiative that encourages people to give up alcohol for the month of October. The money raised goes to Life Education, the organisation behind the iconic educational mascot, Healthy Harold. For over 30 years, our loveable giraffe has been teaching Australian children how to enjoy a healthy lifestyle by resisting participation in drug and alcohol abuse. This year, Ocsober aims to raise $750,000 to help Life Education and Healthy Harold go into even more schools across Australia."
A worthy cause, and I understand that focusing on drug and alcohol abuse during a time of year when people may take alcohol to the excess.

Orktoberfest
What is Orktoberfest? It is a massive Miniatures game called Warhammer 40K. People all over the world buy, build and paint their own armies then meet up in a large tournament environment during October to do battle. These events happen all over the world. Here is some youtube footage of some of the miniatures ready to do battle.




I suppose the marketing world could continue along this vein if they wanted to. Let's see, there could be Sanuary (promoting workplace sanity), oh and as February already has Valentines Day, why not make it Heartuary focusing on Cardio-Vascular health.  Really, the list could go on for all the months of the year. It can be a clever marketing tool for the right event, but an overuse of the one marketing ploy can also desensitise people and what may start off as a clever idea could lead turn out to be hurtful to a campaign.