Our goal is to entertain and engage the imagination of children with our stuffed animals, our store environment, and online. Our intention with the Polar Bear story was to inspire children, through the voices of our animal characters, to make a difference in their own individual ways. We did not intend to politicize the topic of global climate change or offend anyone in any way. The webisodes concluded this week with Santa successfully leaving on his journey to deliver gifts around the world. The webisodes will no longer be available on the site.
I get the sense that, for as important as it is to yell at elected representatives who endorse policies that damage our interests, it's the negative feedback directed towards AGW promoting corporations that may produce the most results per complaint over the long run.
Unlike their counterparts in mass media, most sensible retailers understand that the consumer can, and will, reject a product tainted by political agenda. A few angry letters can alert an executive that the global warming "consensus" ain't what she used to be.
An update from Ed Driscoll, in the comments. "For what it's worth, the three Build-A-Bear videos that Hot Air linked to are all still up on YouTube, where any kid can, and will stumble across them."
I did take the time to send a short email yesterday.
"did not intend to politicize" - I would say someone involved with this quite clearly had every intention to politicize the topic.
If that is supposed to be an apology, it's pretty darn mealy-mouthed, IMHO. Sounds more like an attempt to explain why those offended should not take offense, rather than an apology at all. Oh! The nuance of it all!
And how in Hell do you "politicize" a topic that has been nothing BUT political from the very get-go?
SDA may have gotten results, but it comes more in the form of a CYA statement, and not the mea culpa that should have been forthcoming.
Heh.
Where's my hat tip?
;-)
Having worked in a very Liberal environment before, I can say that it is very rare for anyone to hold a grudge to the same level as a Liberal activist who’s agenda is questioned by a subordinate. All you have to see is one person question whether it is appropriate for the company to focus on a highly political cause to learn that it is best to keep your mouth shut.
I wouldn’t be surprised if upper management wasn’t informed and didn’t approve of the message that was being presented, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the people who knew about it kept their mouth shut. With this in mind, it is important for you to send letters (not emails, most companies see a well written letter as being worth far more than an email) to companies when you don’t approve of a message they’re presenting because when enough people do this the people promoting their agenda are the ones who get punished.
No hat tip for you. I got an email from the company.
And yes, it's mealy mouthed, but we (and others) got their attention.
At least it was not a complaint about being hijacked by some right wing extremists, as I might have expected.
Not good enough.
What is a politician if not a product to be sold to the public? True many of them are not as bright as a stuffed bear, but they and their glossy packaging are out there on the shelves with comparable products. We need to make it clear to these products that we will no longer continue to buy them, if they continue to ignore our opinions and wishes.
Of course they wanted to politicise AGW and used children as an unwitting audience to do it. They're damn lucky to be afloat.
and they'll think twice the next time before they try and poison the minds of children with goofy lefty politics.
We have to engage with the culture. Politicians are pretty oblivious but a good company responds more quickly.
I just want to say thank you Kate for bringing this to my attention. I fired off an email yesterday. Got a hunch I wasn't alone.
SDA gets results indeed.
I think you're right Kate. Let's hit these dingbats in the pocketbook. I recall a a few comments on previous threads noting many people are no longer buying Coca Cola because of their association with Greecepece (misspelling intentional)and the global warming crowd.
There is no such thing as a "good" company or a "bad" company . All companies should be committed to earning a return for their shareholders. Ones that do not ... fail. When a company adopts a strategy like the one Build a Bear did through its webisodes promoting the politics of climate, there is a good possiblity that it will alienate a substatial portion of the marketplace thus reducing sales and ultimately affecting profits. Strategies like this one are instituted or facilitated by management not the company. When one looks at a company it is more reasonable to characterize management as good or bad. In this case they were double awful, once for their stupid stance on global warming and directing it at children through a lame webisode and secondly by issuing an apology that takes no responsibility and blames others for taking offense. If this is an indication of how they handle problems, this company will not be around long.
I wrote to two of the principals involved - the head web bear and the CEB - Chief Executive Bear (how innocent and cutesy is that?). Basically got a thank you for your feedback from the head web bear with a direction to read the CEB's web post.
In a former life (the mother of elementary school kids) I fought against this kind of stuff in the public school system - complicated issues being presented to children in simplistic, cartoon-like formats. The thinking of educators astounded me then and the thinking of corporate interests, such as Build-a-Bear, astound me now.
At the time, the educators felt, and apparently the Build-a-Bear people now feel, that no time is too early to start educating children about concepts they have no real critical ability to process or understand in more than a superficial, i.e. my teacher said so, manner.
For what it's worth, the three Build-A-Bear videos that Hot Air linked to are all still up on YouTube, where any kid can, and will stumble across them.
" Unlike their counterparts in mass media, most sensible retailers understand ..."
BINGO !!
In fact, 90% of the world's people understand what allows us to have a roof over our head, food on the table, heat in our homes, medical care and some pleasures in life.
It is all made possible by way of commerce and jobs. And productivity. And by producing some thing that is in demand.
Kate has, as always, struck on the jest of the whole matter. The other 10% - the media, alarmists, academia and most politicians - are virtually immune to a boycott as 90% of us are already ignoring them. All they have is their closed loop - and our tax dollars. (They are fast loosing subscription and classified dollars)
The problem is, this small 10% is receiving the lion's share of the attention and favorable press. Journalists love each other and Professors and alarmists.
This 10% knows that if this cushy little clique falls apart, they and their products would not make out all that well amongst the other 90%.
That is why they make the most noise; election campaigns, TV interviews. Part of this group can be counted on to smash windows and burn cars. They know the media cameras will follow them. And they can watch themselves on the six o'clock news while the other 90% is driving home from work. Kool.
"and they'll think twice the next time before they try and poison the minds of children with goofy lefty politics."
Not if it makes a buck.
This might be a business, but the governments of the world are still successful doing this with the educational institutions. What do they have to gain? minds and tax.
Mealy mouthed or not, Kate, Build-a-Bear is one outfit that will think twice about using little kids to further a political agenda again.
I tip my hat to you. Merry Christmas.
Bravo! Well done, SDA nation! And the next company to be our target is....?
"..most sensible retailers understand that the consumer can, and will, reject a product tainted by political agenda.."
Great ... now apply this principle to advertisers and sponsors for CBC and CTV etc....
Ghost of Ed @ 7:39 I was one of those and we had our Christmas family gathering for three days this last weekend. We had a few different types of juice, some red and white wines, some ginger ale and last but not least, some Pepsi. No Coca Cola.
Yes indeed, sda does get results - I saw this on Fox news today! Way to go Kate and Co!
You are on the right track with corporate feedback; however, this one was also about mixing politics and children.
"Webisode"????? Now they're on a new tack, doing serious damage to the English language.
First they clubbed seals, then they clubbed polar bears. When will this madness stop??
another reason to boycott Coke is the TV ad showing penguins and polar bears frolicking together.
I do wonder how many of the "shareholders" also have shares in "carbon credit" companies. Was Gore silly enough to have not covered his tracks? Cheers;
Fox News covered it this morning! Turns out she is a big $$$ supporter of the Obamatron plus connected to J C Penny.
I sent the company an email, followed up by a hard copy letter stating my admiration that they are addressing a real and existing phenomenon; climate change and the depletion and instability of the arctic ice. The Inuit can not longer depend on the thickness and stability of the ice due to climate change, this in turn causes problems with hunting, travel and their general way of life. Weather patterns have changed dramatically in the arctic and are not as predictable. I sent a copy to the WWF as well and hopefully they correspond with Build-a-Bear as well. In January in our daughters school the entire month K-12 is devoted to studying climate change and instability, causes and effects and what can be done (i.e. carbon tax etc) to curb emissions, penalize major polluters and change people's habits. I say bravo to the school division for embarking on this project and taking a firm stand on climate change.
Can't you 'flag' those videos somehow as inappropriate for children?
T-- I couldn't help but notice within your confession the use of the newly UN sanctioned term "climate change and INSTABILITY". I guess it is to be expected that as your "word trenches" are overrun a new word will be pushed into the fray. The depth of the english language must be a comfort to you and your ilk.
T-- I couldn't help but notice within your confession the use of the newly UN sanctioned term "climate change and INSTABILITY". I guess it is to be expected that as your "word trenches" are overrun a new word will be pushed into the fray. The depth of the english language must be a comfort to you and your ilk.
If they were to embark on a course on supply-side-capitalism as the cure for global warming using markets and entrepreneurial innovation to tackle the "perceived" AGW problem "T" (if that is your real name) would protesting outside the school with a fill in the blank protest sign. Chanting "you are brainwashing our children".
Amazing what the left will allow in schools if in line with their political philosophy, and are the first to protest when it is not. How about kids learn some basic science and critical thinking skills before we start indoctrination via political positions so maybe 50% can get out with a true understanding of the world and science, and continue studying them instead of flooding the soft disciplines and liberal arts programs (there is not any jobs left at the CBC).
T, it is people like you who are taking the fun out of being a kid. It only comes once in a lifetime.
It would be more appropriate to teach kids about recycling and picking up garbage and shutting off lights when not needed. These things are tangible, not like the ones you and the school system are trying to teach.
Do the kids with the highest marks also have to give up there A's to kids with F's, you know just to balance it out a bit to make it more fair?
Please go to PBS here and post a comment regarding Jim Lehrer’s interview with Obama
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2009/12/excerpt-obama-on-disappointment-in-copenhagen.html
T
Anyone who sanctions the brainwashing of his children by irrational cultists in a PUBLIC school is an unfit parent. What's next? Wicka? Scientology? It would be a lot better for the kid's mental health to be taught the fundamentals of logical thinking rather than be turned into automatons.
GLOBAL WARMING is the biggist fruad ever perpatrated on the world by con artists politicians and the eco-nazis