Pro-Family Pressure Prompts Retailers to Reconsider PC 'Holiday' Policies

AFA Founder Says Consumers Are Convincing Corporate Grinches to Give Back 'Christmas'
By Allie Martin
December 7, 2005

(AgapePress) - Target department stores appear to be backing off a ban on using "Merry Christmas" in their advertising campaigns. According to the New York Times, a Target spokesperson said the retail chain did not intend to ban the use of the traditional greeting and might use it in ads later this year.

Last week, the American Family Association called for a boycott of Target after company representatives failed to respond to repeated inquiries about the absence of the phrase "Merry Christmas" in any of the national chain's seasonal promotions. AFA founder Donald Wildmon believes this indicates that store officials heard from lots of Christian consumers, who let Target know they were not pleased.

Wildmon says Target's corporate officials heard the message loud and clear and moved quickly to adjust its "holiday" marketing approach. "I figured that they don't want their bottom line to be hurt," the pro-family leader says. "They're doing this in order to keep from losing money."

That, after all, is the name of the game with a corporation, Wildmon points out. "They're in business to make money, and if they offend enough people they're going to lose sales," he says. "So I think they're beginning to turn this ship around. I certainly hope they are."

An AFA survey of typical television advertising during a night of December prime-time programming on the four major networks showed that 91 percent of the TV ads avoided using the word "Christmas." Instead, the study found that the "holiday" theme was used in 105 commercials, while Christmas was the theme in only 11 spots. According to AFA analysts, this follows the pattern of Christmas season print advertising, where the term "holiday" is used 25 times more often than the word "Christmas."

Wildmon believes the voices of traditional, pro-family consumers are already having an impact on retailers this Christmas. Sears has recently made a point of adding "Merry Christmas" signs in its stores. And Lowe's, which lately began using the terms "Holiday Season" and "holiday trees" in its promotions, expressed regret to anyone who may have been offended and assured the public that it is reviewing its policy changes.

Lowe's stated that "feedback we have received from customers" drove its decision to review its recent advertising policy changes and to reconsider how best to describe products sold for holiday celebrations to a diverse public. The company's corporate officials also promised that this year's "holiday trees" would, in next year's advertising campaigns, be properly referred to as "Christmas trees."