Pumpkin, spice, together make the fall season nice. Or so it seems.

Fall is undoubtedly a favorite time of the year in the eyes of big corporations. Year after year, it seems that fall is lasting longer and longer.

Spearheading the early fall season is the quintessential pumpkin-spice latte (PSL for short), which has garnered a quasi-cult craze.

The PSL can be nothing short of great considering its popularity, but it fails to represent the fall season. It seems PSLs have become nothing more than a marketing ploy to draw in more sales.

Before summer has ended, grocery aisles are stocked with pumpkin-spice flavored products, and businesses across the U.S. unveil their takes on pumpkin-spice flavored, well, everything.

Marketing for pumpkin everything is an ingenious strategy on the part of companies, but an emphasis on marketing detracts from what fall truly represents. Fall is a season not of pumpkin spice but of harvest, autumnal festivities and bringing people inward, both physically and mentally, preparing for winter.

By no means does this mean that people should stop buying pumpkin spice-flavored things until fall has officially begun, but they should understand that the emergence of pumpkin-spice season is less about the fall season and more about making money from consumers.

Corporate marketing has created a disconnect about why and how we celebrate things—the pumpkin-spice latte—around this time of year. Oversaturation will inevitably lead to desensitization to products.

This principle of marketing removing the meanings behind holidays and seasons goes beyond just the PSL; marketing ploys are in nearly every holiday and season, but people should buy what they want because they truly want it.

Do not fall prey to marketing ploys that exploit your emotions in order to make a quick buck.