Focus puts retailers on a naughty and nice list for Christmas

Focus on the Family wants shoppers to know which retailers are naughty and which ones are nice - at least when it comes to holiday lingo.

On Thursday the Colorado Springs-based ministry's political action arm launched its second-annual holiday campaign by posting an online shoppers guide with three categories: "Christmas-friendly" retailers, "Christmas-negligent" retailers and "Christmas-offensive" retailers.

The "friendly" retailers are so designated because they prominently use "Merry Christmas" and other Christmas-specific references in their catalogs and in-store promotions. Those on the Christmas-offensive list use secular phrases such as "happy holidays" and have "apparently abandoned" the use of the word "Christmas," Focus said. Christmas-negligent companies "marginalize" their message by using "Christmas" in some cases and "holidays" in others.

The ministry - which made its determinations based mostly on an examination of retailers' print and online holiday catalogs - encourages shoppers to patronize the Christmas-friendly stores, but does not tell them to avoid the other retailers.

"It is not a boycott," said Sonja Swiatkiewicz, Focus' director of issues response. "Consumers can do what they wish with the information."

Even so, the online guide includes an electronic petition shoppers can sign that tells retailers "I plan to consult Focus on the Family Action's Shopping Guide ... while making my Christmas purchases this year."

The Focus shopping guide is another weapon in the growing battle against what social conservatives several years ago labeled the "War on Christmas" - the notion that Christmas is being secularized, in part by retailers trying not to offend non-Christians by using terms like "holiday season," "winter season," "shopping season" and "holiday trees."

Some of the tactics have paid off.

In 2005, Sears, Kmart, Walmart and Target received threats of a boycott from Christian groups for their "holiday season" advertising. The companies soon adopted the Christmas-friendly language.

The idea for the Focus shopping guide was hatched last year after the success of "Merry Tossmas," a video by employee Stuart Shepard that was first shown on citizenlink.org on Nov. 1, 2007.

In the video - which Shepard updated in a sequel that premiered Thursday - he tosses catalogs that use generic holiday language into a waste can.

Shepard's first video received 2.2 million online visits. Emboldened by the response, Focus launched its first shoppers guide during the 2007 holiday season.

This year's campaign kicked off in April, when Focus sent letters to 33 retail executives asking companies to use Christian language during the holiday shopping season. Eight agreed, three were noncommittal and the rest have not responded.

One corporation that has two companies labeled "Christmas-offensive" and another designated "Christmas-negligent" received the Focus letter but has no plans to alter its holiday advertising.

"We are a diverse global retailer, aware that our customers come from many faith backgrounds," said Melissa Swanson, spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Gap Inc., which owns Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy. "We honor that by not advertising toward people of any one faith. We want all of our customers to experience a warm and friendly shopping experience."

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com.

 
FOR THE GUIDE

To see the Focus on the Family shoppers guide, go to www.citizenlink.org