LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONSUMERISM

February love is loud.

It lunges at you, doesn't it?
Like a huge gust of wind catching your umbrella and turning it inside out, love in February is like someone took the idea of romance, gave it 15 packets of M&M’s and now it’s bouncing off the walls. You can’t leave the house without feeling like you’re in some over-zealous rom-com montage, I mean, there’s a huge heart, winking in the window of the fish and chip shop for goodness sake.
Although, I suppose you could argue that nothing says romance quite like mushy peas and a battered sausage (don’t be rude! don’t be rude.)

Cardboard cupids dangle from supermarket ceilings, rows upon rows of almost identical Valentine's cards promise eternal devotion for the bargain price of 3.99 (!!)
You can’t yawn in public without tasting artificial strawberry. Even the most mundane products have been given a seductive backstory; the tea towels are flirting. The pasta has hearts. The washing-up liquid wants you to run it a bubble bath.