RIESTER

Shoppers on Black Friday, 2009.

Optimism is a brand. And now that the holiday season is in full swing, it’s being packaged and marketed like never before.

Retailers are pitching it. Ben Bernanke is pitching it. Jim Cramer is pitching it.

The question remains: Are people ready to get into the spirit and buy it? For now, that’s hard to say. After two straight months of declines, American consumer confidence rose in November. But as the National Retail Federation reports, more people may be shopping this holiday season, but they are spending less.

So far, it sounds like shoppers are just being smart. They are buying optimism in smaller quantities and are not willing to go into debt over it. Again.

It’s hard to say how all the latest economic news will affect this. Manufacturing in the U.S. has expanded for the fourth consecutive month. China’s manufacturing is back in full swing, growing at its fastest pace in five years. The National Association of Realtors is even feeling chirpy, with a 32 percent rise in sales agreements from this time last year.

The truth is, holiday shoppers probably have little of this on their mind when they hit the malls or peruse their favorite Web sites. And that’s ok. It’s also ok that they include a little optimism on their holiday shopping list this year. They just need to make sure that it’s wrapped in caution. Because as good as it feels to find a little optimism under the tree, the best gift we can give each other right now – and in the years to come – is a sense of responsibility.

That’s where the real hope rests this time of year. No holiday season should return us to our glorious debtful ways. Instead, if all of us can give and receive responsibly, then we can sustain businesses that deserve to be sustained – we can even help new ones get started.

Lo and behold, that may just buy us all a new brand of optimism.

Tom Ortega is RIESTER’s executive creative director. He is a Brand Activist who creates campaigns for clients that propel their products and ideas into the marketplace in sustainable ways.