How PR Tried to Take Away 'Black Friday'

The mayhem. The carnage. The humanity.

I thought this day of delirium had to do with getting stores “in the black,” but then I stumbled upon a Big Friday fact that I didn’t know:

PR tried to kill it…or at least spruce up its reputation a bit.

Here’s the day’s basic origin story (and yes, it’s from Wikipedia):

The day’s name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use