Anyone taking part in the Target ban?

[bull]

I never know what to think of these boycotts so I usually just ignore them but this one got me a little fired up because it claimed Target banned the use of the word Christmas in it's advertising as well as banning Salvation Army solicitors from the property. So I decided to use TK73's favorite trick and ask Snopes. Here's what I got:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/targetxmas.asp
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/sallyann.asp

It seems Target really has banned the Salvation Army from its premises and really did ban the written use of the word Christmas until recently. The AFA, which launched the boycott, dropped it on Dec. 9 because Target lifted the ban on the word in print ads and in-store promotions. http://media.afa.net/newdesign/ReleaseDetail.asp?id=3332

I still don't know what to think of Target's ban on the Salvation Army solicitors. To me it seems like a very crappy thing to do, especially on the heels of all the problems created by the hurricanes this year to which the Salvation Army responded swiftly and with lots of money. I can understand a store having a policy against solicitors out front but at the same time I think the solicitors should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

[Orange_Crush]

My personal policy is:

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

BTW, look at the amount of money that Target gives to various charities every year.

['CUDA360]

We found several things cheaper at Target then at Walmart   
Maybe we will be political when we have more money 

[Old Moparz]

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

   

[Vainglory, Esq.]

I'm pirating this from another thread (thanks bull):

we just want you to sit down and shut your mouth if you don't like the Pledge of Allegiance. Or simply close your mouth and skip the beat that includes the words "under God" and leave the rest of us alone. These knuckleheads really do think there's a conspiracy to control their minds, don't they?

As regards Target, they would like Christmas celebrators to sit down and shut their mouths if they don't like the fact that the word Christmas doesn't appear.   Perhaps they could find something better to do with their lives than harp on the absence of a single word that denotes a holiday that some people don't celebrate (shouldn't they leave non-celebrators alone?), as well as respect the fact that Target, as a private entity, can do whatever it damn well pleases with its stores.   These knuckleheads really think there's a conspiracy to kill Christmas don't they?

[sunfire69]

Here is the story on CNN seems they were called off for the most part.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/13/commentary/pluggedin_fortune/index.htm
Jerry

[Ponch ®]

My personal policy is:

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

Do they sell Sirius Satellite radios there?

[Orange_Crush]

My personal policy is:

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

Do they sell Sirius Satellite radios there?

Yup

Target gets my money anyways because I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

[Ponch ®]

My personal policy is:

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

Do they sell Sirius Satellite radios there?

Yup

Target gets my money anyways because I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

Sweet...i just might stop by and see what theyre prices are. Right now, Circuit City seems to have the best deals on Sirius stuff.

[derailed]

My personal policy is:

"If the AFA is boycotting it, I will double the amount of money I spend there."

Do they sell Sirius Satellite radios there?

Yup

Target gets my money anyways because I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

I try stay out of Wal Mart myself. Scumbag outfit

[ChargerBill]

Well, I guess the AFA must be evil since you guys are all so against them. I guess the values they promote are useless. Apparently anyone who agrees with them is a fool. I guess the only values to cling to are no values at all. Screw family, screw morality, screw Christmas. Well, it's nice to know where you guys stand...thanks for the invaluable insight.

BTW: Don't worry, I won't bore you with offensive talk about traditional family values, God or Christmas...you'd get bent out of shape and it's not worth my time.

[Charger_Fan]

Target gets my money anyways because I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

I don't shop at either one of them, they both suck in my book.
I've almost convinced my wife too...I bet by next year, she'll be completely on board.


Who is AFA? Religious group, I assume?

[Troy]

I've had a personal ban on targets for a while now - I just shoot at live animals.

Oh, Target the store? There are many companies who don't ever mention the word "Christmas" in any of their advertising and they don't even specifically exclude it. Should we force them to correctly identify the holiday or face a boycott? I think it's stupid to sell Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas wrapping paper, and Christmas decorations (including Santa and his reindeer or nativity scenes) without mentioning the word Christmas. If you want to have a sale on clothing or snowblowers and call it a holiday sale then I don't see a problem. It's funny that all the same stores will have a Halloween sale even though not everyone celebrates Halloween and the holiday also has many names. Most of the same stores have Easter sales too so I really don't see the logic in their naming practices.

From personal experience, I can say that boycotts are practically useless except for the simple fact that they make the nightly news.

Troy

[Ponch ®]

Well, I guess the AFA must be evil since you guys are all so against them. I guess the values they promote are useless. Apparently anyone who agrees with them is a fool. I guess the only values to cling to are no values at all. Screw family, screw morality, screw Christmas. Well, it's nice to know where you guys stand...thanks for the invaluable insight.

BTW: Don't worry, I won't bore you with offensive talk about traditional family values, God or Christmas...you'd get bent out of shape and it's not worth my time.

its not that the values they promote are useless. It's that they try to force those values on everyone else and they 'holier than thou' attitude they have.

If x-mas is really that important to members of the AFA, then they shouldnt need Target to tell them that a X-mas tree is a x-mas tree.

[Lowprofile]

Funny thing about all these companies that no longer want to say Merry Christmas to shoppers or use those words in advertising.........They sure like those Christmas $$$$$$$$$$ in their registers.

Political Correctness has run amok.   

[Ponch ®]

Funny thing about all these companies that no longer want to say Merry Christmas to shoppers or use those words in advertising.........They sure like those Christmas $$$$$$$$$$ in their registers.

What the AFA should be telling people in the first place is that Christmas is not about the presents and shopping. But there are "Jesse Jackson" opportunist-types on every side of the political/cultural spectrum looking for every opportunity to do some grandstanding.

[volk68]

I don't like a lot of what Target does, so I don't shop there.  That said, if I didn't like them before, the Salvation Army thing would have made me stop buying there.  I'm sorry, but there is just no good excuse for shutting the Salvation Army out, especially in light of the year's disasters.  Target is the suck 

[ChargerBill]

its not that the values they promote are useless. It's that they try to force those values on everyone else and they 'holier than thou' attitude they have.

If x-mas is really that important to members of the AFA, then they shouldnt need Target to tell them that a X-mas tree is a x-mas tree.

First off...you participate in the ban if you WANT, just like participating in Christmas...free will. Secondly, they banned Target because if they didn't, then many other stores would also banned (and many have tried to) the use of the word Christmas. They are simply standing up for the values they believe in. Does anyone REALLY think that Christmas would be the celebration it is without hundreds of years of it being celebrated in America as "Christmas"? It has been called that since it was first celebrated...now all of a sudden we need to erase any connection with the original and true meaning, remove all references or ultimately rename it ?(which is what NON-Christians want) And Troy brings up a great point...what about Halloween? I don't celebrate it...in my household we call it Harvest...and forego trick-or-treating completely. If I suggested no mention of Halloween in stores or calling it Harvest in advertisements I'd have members here telling me to get over it...so why are MY values $h!t and yet I have to sit idly by and listen to the BS that gets thrown around here on a regular basis against Christianity or conservatism? The other side preaches tolerance, but has NONE for my values...hmmmm...

BTW: Isn't it self righteous ANYTIME you try to promote your own beliefs over those of another? Wouldn't that mean that EVERYONE is somewhat sellf righteous? I mean, having NO moral values and telling others who do that they are self righteous is actually a self righteous statement..isn't it?

Also, in case no one actually "gets" it..the REAL reason for banning The Salvation Army is because they are a Christian organization...period.

[Ponch ®]

  Does anyone REALLY think that Christmas would be the celebration it is without hundreds of years of it being celebrated in America as "Christmas"? It has been called that since it was first celebrated...

exactly. So why do you need Target and other stores to remind you what Christmas is? If it's that important, then the traditions and values of Christmas will be always passed on in the home, from parents to children and whether a store chooses to use the word "Christmas" or not should be of no concern.

Example - yesterday my family celebrated the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It's a mexican tradition going back hundreds of years. There are no "Virgen of Guadalupe" sales at Target, no Lexus commercial touting the holiday. Save for a 1960's movie on some odd UHF spanish channel, you would not even know that there was anything special about the day. Yet every little kid in my family (some who have not even ever been to mexico) knows the story. The importance of the holiday is strong enough that just about every family with mexican ties commemorated it in some way or another.  

Having said that, I would actually agree with you that the whole thing is absurd. But Im not losing any sleep over it.

[Shakey]

Poncho, tell us more about this vigin you speak of.

[Ponch ®]

Poncho, tell us more about this vigin you speak of.

"In 1523, just two years after the Aztec capital of Tenochitlan fell to Hernán Cortés and his Conquistadors, the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrivd to begin the religious conquest of Mexico.
Among their first converts was a man baptized with the Christian name Juan Diego. On the chilly morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego crossed the barren hill called Tepeyac to attend Mass. He was brought to a sudden halt by a blinding light and the sound of heavenly music. Before him appeared  an astounding vision--a beautiful dark-skinned woman who, calling the Indian "my son", declared herself to be the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She told Juan Diego it was her desire to have a church built on Tepeyac hill, and asked him to relay that message to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga.It was no easy task for the humble Indian to be granted an audience with the top prelate, but the persistent Juan Diego was finally admitted. The incredulous Bishop demanded that he be provided with some proof of the unlikely encounter. Confused and fearful, Juan Diego avoided Tepeyac for several days, but on December 12, while rushing to find a priest to attend a seriously ill uncle, he took a short cut across the hill. The Virgin once again appeared and Juan Diego told her of the Bishop's request. The Virgin instructed him to pick roses from the usually barren and desolate hill and deliver them to Zumarraga as the sign.
Juan Diego gathered up the miraculous blossoms in his mantle and hurried off to complete his mission. Once again before the Bishop, he let the roses spill out before him. To the wonder of all assembled, a perfect image of La Virgen of Guadalupe was revealed emblazoned on Juan Diego's cloak.
Juan Diego's mantle, carefully preserved in the new Basilica, has been subjected to extensive analysis over the years. Experts have authenticated the fabric as dating to the 16th century, but have been unable to determine the type of pigment from which the image was rendered. It seems doubtful that in the Colonial era in Mexico human hands were capable of creating a portrait of its exquisite nature. It is even doubtful it can be done in Mexico today.  Most wonderous of all, after 465 years, the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe remains clearly imprinted on the miraculous cloak without visible signs of deterioration.
By order of the Bishop, a small church was soon constructed on the site designated by the Virgin. Skeptics are quick to point out the unlikely coincidence of the Virgin's appearance on Tepeyac, the very site of an Aztec temple dedicated to Tonatzin (earth godess, mother of the gods and protectress of humanity) which had been devastated by order of Bishop Zumarraga.
The original church was replaced by a larger structure built in 1709. The Miracle of Guadalupe was officially recognized by the Vatican in 1745. The second sanctuary was declared a Basilica in 1904. A new Basilica, of modern design and enormous capacity, was dedicated in October of 1976. This is found in the northern section of present-day Mexico City.
In this and other churches dedicated to La Virgen de Guadalupe throughout the nation, millions of the faithful will gather December 12 for processions, prayers, songs, dances, and fireworks to honor "La Reina de México" (the Queen of Mexico)."

[Andrew]

remove all references or ultimately rename it ?(which is what NON-Christians want)

They do?

So Iv been doing it wrong all these years?


bugger.

[bull]

It's the definition of hypocracy for these businesses to exploit Christmas while at the same time pay lip service to ignoring it. Businesses that are not owned by Christians shouldn't observe Christmas anyway. Why do they put up red and green decorations all over the place and then say "holiday" this and that. What other holiday used red and green and wreaths and Santa and Christmas trees, etc. And none of you people who aren't Christians should be celebrating Christmas either. Why do you? Save yourself some money, it's not your holiday.

[Andrew]

And none of you people who aren't Christians should be celebrating Christmas either. Why do you? Save yourself some money, it's not your holiday.

Please tell me that was sarcasm.

[Ponch ®]

. And none of you people who aren't Christians should be celebrating Christmas either. Why do you? Save yourself some money, it's not your holiday.

why not? one's gotta get with the party, bro.

that's why ill be attending various hannukah, kwanzaa and christmas shindigs in the next couple of weeks.