So, there's this group out there that calls itself the "Committee to Save Merry Christmas" which has a website at savemerrychristmas.org, that is calling for a boycott of all Federated department stores because they don't say "Merry Christmas" enough in their advertising, they say "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings." They picked Federated to boycott, even though everybody else does the same thing, because Federated is the parent company of Macy's, and everybody knows that "Macy's" was synomyous with "Christmas" because of movies like that totally secularized Miracle on 34th Street that attributes to Santa powers that only God has. I don't know why people want to hearken back to that movie if what they're concerned about is that Christmas is a Christian holiday, because that film isn't exactly Christian. This whole thing about getting mad that they don't say "Merry Christmas" enough is just yet another proof that people are just way too easily offended.
The whole Save Merry Christmas boycott is misrepresenting the company's position as though they're refusing to acknowledge Christmas or have a completely secular holiday presentation. The stores play Christmas music (and have been playing it since September), and it's not just sanitized secularized Christmas music, it's blatantly Christian Christmas music. They sell Christmas cards that are more Christian than a lot of the ones that I've seen in Christian bookstores, including ones with John 3:16 and John 1:1. The ornaments we sell are all "Christmas ornaments" (including obviously Christian ornaments like crosses) the trees are "Christmas trees," and, in all of the years that I've worked there over Christmas, I've never heard anyone suggest to employees that we shouldn't wish people a Merry Christmas. Everyone was shocked to find out that we were the target of a boycott because if any store makes a big deal about Christmas, it's us. If people are looking for a store to boycott, they should boycott Target (which I happen to be doing, even if nobody else is), because they won't even allow Salvation Army bell ringers outside their stores--I think that's a prime example of profit margin being put ahead of the reason for the season.
What is particularly problematic about boycotting a company like Federated is that virtually all of their sales people work on commission. Unlike a boycott of a big box retailer where all you are impacting is the bottom line, this boycott directly harms the little guy, the sales people who need the money they earn from commission to pay their bills. This boycott isn't just going to impact stock prices and corporate bonuses like most boycotts, it's taking money directly out of my pocket and the pocket of the other sales people, yet we have absolutely no say or influence in the decisions at corporate. This whole thing frustrates me because it's a no win situation. No matter what, somebody's going to get offended--some customers will get upset if I tell them "Merry Christmas" others will get upset if I say "Happy Holidays."
Also, I think that in this situation a boycott is counterproductive. Federated believes very strongly in diversity, and that belief in diversity could have been used as an advantage if someone had come to the company and said, "look, we know that you believe in the importance of diversity, and the generic 'happy holidays' advertising is glossing over the diversity that exists rather than embracing it," I'm pretty sure that they would have listened and included more "Merry Christmas" advertising. Instead, they see the boycott as people trying to force them to ignore their Jewish and Muslim customers, and as a result they're digging in their heels. Boycotts have their place, but this is a situation where they didn't even try to catch flies with honey, they just went straight to the vinegar.
Posted by kathryn at Diciembre 5, 2004 02:24 AM | TrackBack