Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying "Christmas" in Ads (Even Though Its Ads Do Use the Word)

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The American Family Association, a Christian group, is urging a boycott of The Gap (GPS) and its brands (Old Navy and Banana Republic), because the stores do not use the word “Christmas” in their ads.

It’s difficult to know where to start with this nonsense, but how about the fact that Gap does indeed use the word Christmas in this year’s campaign? It’s right there, on The Gap’s web site. The video that opens the site contains this cheerleader-style chant:

2-4-6-8, ’tis the time to liberate. Go Christmas! Go Hanukkah! Go Kwanzaa! …

World Net Daily, a news site folowed by Christians and conservatives, also found “Christmas” in Gap’s ads:

WND was able to find one mention of “Christmas” in a broadcast ad which is also featured on its website. It appears near the end of a rap song, the lyrics of which state:

…Gifted like Christmas so I love to rap/We gonna give it to the world peace, love, and Gap.

And yet AFA boss Don Wildmon tells WND:

“As hard as we tried,” Wildmon said, “AFA could not find a single instance in which Gap-owned stores use the term ‘Christmas.’ Not a single time! When one Old Navy store manager was asked by AFA if the word Christmas was in his store, he answered, ‘We have a lot of Christmas gifts in our stores, but the word Christmas is not used here. Everything is holiday.’

What is Wildmon trying to achieve? The boycott suggests that it would be better if The Gap exploited Christmas to the hilt, commercializing it as much as possible in a campaign to rack up sales of sweaters and jeans. Which, obviously, was, er … Christ’s true message.

The other nonsensical outcome of this boycott would be the coercion of a non-Christian organization into a false celebration of Christmas. Which, equally obviously, you can find in the New Testament … possibly.

And while non-Christians are kidding themselves if they believe that the Dec. 25 federal holiday was created for Hanukkah or Muharram, Wildmon’s campaign suggests it would somehow better if clothing retailers did their best to annoy non-Christians as much as possible.

The only possible conclusion: Wildmon and the AFA are atheist stooges whose mission is to make Christians look as ridiculous as possible. Genius!

Image: A Christmas display at a Gap in Japan, via Shack Attack.

Hat tip to Brandweek.

Tags: Boycott, Christmas, Gap, Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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1

xyzzyaarg

11/13/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Funny
2

pkrufus

11/16/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Jim,

I dare you to be as contemptuous of other religions as you have been of Christianity in this article of yours. I dare you to speak condescendingly about the clerics of other faiths who speak out in defense of their beliefs. This is a business blog, Jim. Stick to it.

I can completely understand if you have personal beliefs for or against a religion. But to lash out against it under the garb of business-speak is lame, Jim. You seem pretty neutral and objective in all your posts. Except here. Why, Jim? Do Christians make you uncomfortable, Jim? How come people from other faiths don't make you react so caustically? Or do you reserve your worst for Christianity only?

BTW, not sure if you've heard this: "According to a new Zogby poll, 95 percent of Americans say they are not offended by being greeted with a "Merry Christmas" while shopping; but greet them with a "Happy Holidays," and 46 percent say they take offense." Why hasn't this statistic featured in your post, Jim? I'm surprised that someone like you who's so clued into he happenings of the business world could be unaware of this. Or did you conveniently leave this out?

If you have a problem with the AFA or its proponents, criticize them by all means. But you have no right to speak condescendingly of Christ or The Bible. Not on a business blog. Because, and be honest, you wouldn't dare speak out against Krishna or Buddha or Mohammad. So take your bilious attitude elsewhere, Jim. Unless BNET, too, agrees that it's open season on Christianity.

Here's my conclusion: You and BNET are on GAP's payroll. What else could it be?
3

BNET's Jim Edwards

11/16/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

@pkrufus: Obviously I'm not on Gap's payroll. If I'm condescending to Christians on this blog, it's only because Christians seem so intent on having secular advertisers cater to their demands.

The moment the other faiths behave the same way as Christians do on this issue, I'll treat them the same way. It's a promise!
4

pkrufus

11/17/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

You obviously don?t get it, Jim. Either that, or you refuse to. Let me spell it out for you.

No other religious festival has been commercialised the way Christmas has. If you know your religions and festivals, you?ll know that the Hindus celebrate Diwali and Holi, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Id, while the Jews celebrate Hannukkah. (Of course, there are many others; I?ve just mentioned a few of the big ones.)

So here?s the thing. Which of these festivals, celebrated the world over, have been commercialised to the extent that Christmas has? More importantly (and here?s where Christians like me have a problem), why is it that secular advertisers always mention the names of these festivals in their communications? How come they never have a problem wishing people ?Happy Diwali? or ?Id Greetings? or ?Happy Hannukkah?? Why is it that secular advertisers balk at mentioning the word ?Christmas? when that is what people are celebrating (and that's the reason behind their advertising)?

I don?t buy the whole politically correct phraseology rubbish. I don?t buy the whole Happy-Holidays-covers-so-much-more-than-Christmas argument because every other aspect of the ommunication is Christmas-based. Whether it?s mistletoe, candy cane, stockings, or even Santa himself, secular advertisers still use Christmas imagery. If their intention is to broaden their appeal to be more inclusive of other religions, how come the imagery is so uni-dimensional? Are you trying to imply that people take offence to the word ?Christmas? but are cool with Christmas imagery?

Like it or not, Christmas is a Christian festival. Secular imagery (Santa, mistletoe etc) notwithstanding, what we celebrate is the birth of Jesus Christ. You may not worship Him as God and Saviour of the world, and that?s fine by us. But what we do take offence to is someone hijacking what we hold dear in the name of political correctness.

First, these secular advertisers make money off a very sacred festival of ours by making it into a completely materialistic venture. Then they tell us that they won?t can?t call it by its name!

Are you blind, Jim?
5

DISH Network

11/25/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

At DISH Network, we're definitely not afraid to wish everyone a merry Christmas! We encourage you to check out our latest commercial spot and celebrate Christmas right along with our employees! http://bit.ly/7fWh9p

Merry Christmas from DISH Network.
6

gsdoores

12/01/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Thanks for pointing out how ridiculous this is. Great story.
7

gsdoores

12/01/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Thanks for pointing out how ridiculous this is. Someone had to say it and I'm glad it was you. Very entertaining.
8

paradigm1068

12/09/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

I can't speak for Jim W, but in my case, seeing posts like yours,
pkrufus, absolutely reinforces why I so dislike "Christians". Way
too many people in this country really believe as you stated:

"But you have no right to speak condescendingly of Christ or
The Bible."

I have no right to speak condescendingly? Jim has no right to?
Are you really that stupid?

A rather large portion of this country gets to be subjected by
your modern Christian agenda every day in many forms. Frankly
it's a bit offensive, especially so when you begin to tell us what
our rights are and are not.

Maybe if you, pkrufus, and those like you would spend a little
more time being Christian and a little less time telling the rest of
us what we can and cannot do, your precious little celebration
would regain some of the original meaning.

PS, Christian offensive or not, those Gap commercials are
annoying as can be IMO.
9

Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

12/10/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Re Note 4:

Actually, Christmas is not a Christian holiday at all. It was never celebrated in ancient times and as recently as early 19th century wasn't even a public holiday in most of New England. It was originally a "day of misrule", something like Halloween, where servants were allowed to demand food and drink of their masters and be treated -- for one day -- as if they were the masters and the servants otherwise.

The Christmas that we know today was conscious creation of a group of New England intellectuals (primarly Clement Moore and Dean Howells) intended to replace that riotous "holiday" with a domesticated holiday emphasizing gift-giving between peers. They consciously created the "traditions" that we practice today.

The idea of making Christmas into an explicitly religious holiday is even more recent. The traditional liturgical calendar focuses on Easter, not Christmas, because Easter is important theologically while the birth of Jesus (which isn't in all the gospels) is theologically unimportant by comparison.

So all the complaints from fundamentalist Christians about Christmas not being Christian enough is just another example of their seemingly endless ability to ignore historical fact in order to work their own political and social agenda.
10

Zakman44

12/11/09 | Report as spam

RE: Christians Boycott The Gap for Not Saying

Although no longer religious, I was raised Jewish at a time when Bible reading and carol singing were allowed in public schools. The kids who were Christian, I'm sure, saw nothing wrong with this and could not have imagined how it excluded the rest of us?although we did get in a few licks of our own by altering some of the lyrics ("Oh come let us ABHOR him.")
There's nothing like feeling like an interloper in your own school.

This whole Bill O'Reilly-fueled brouhaha is one of the most ridiculous controversies ever. It's not enough that only religious observance that's also a national holiday is the one that celebrates the birth of Jesus? Isn't that bending the First Amendment enough already?

If anyone should be pissed, it's the Romans. For them, Christmas is nothing more than a "War on Saturnalia."
11

mfan

01/22/10 | Report as spam

@pkrufus

pkrufus, take a chill pill. Just don't buy GAP.

That being said, christian or not, the people who worked on the GAP campaigns are people too! They are just doing their jobs by trying to appeal to everyone. Their job isn't to make ALL christians happy, it's to sell clothes. LETS NOT FORGET THAT THEY DID MENTION CHRISTMAS in their campaign.

The American Family Association is being petty.