Why do retailers proliferate the credit crunch mentality?

Credit crunch, credit crunch, credit crunch. The popularity of this term must have it rocketing to the top of the Oxford Dictionary's list of terms to add to their next edition. It is clear that economic times are difficult, but is it necessary for people who sell products to join in with building such a bleak picture? Increasingly, advertisers are referring to the downturn in an attempt to win new business. Search the phrase "Beat the Credit Crunch" on google and you'll see adverts for discounts on newspapers, travel and even credit cards. How a credit card with 39.9% APR is going to help anyone beat the credit crunch is something I'll have to think about some more.

Is it really the best policy to try and ask someone to part with their cash while at the same time, reminding them of the credit crunch? This term has gone beyond its original meaning of the reduction in credit availability. Nowadays it is used by all major media organisations to encompass all aspects of an economic downturn, including job losses and falling currency values. Reminding a potential customer of all of this as you try and clinch as sale seems as likely to make them do without as to take advantage of a discount.

Taking some rough analogies, would the tobacco industry launch a new brand of low-tar cigarettes and proclaim them 'less likely to cause you to die'? Or a whisky brand saying 'beat the hangover from last night by drinking the rest of the bottle’? Although extreme examples, effectively they are the same as saying 'spend your cash here because you might not have any in the near future'.

Subliminal messages have long been used in advertising to generate a preference for a brand. But the message given out by the proliferation of credit crunch language seems at odds with the end result desired from an advert. Clearly, as a retailer of canvas art, a luxury item, the credit crunch is a relevant to me as every other business. But there won't be any adverts asking you to beat the credit crunch by buying a sale item from me any time soon.