New York – If holiday shopping weren’t hard enough, growing numbers of advocacy groups are campaigning to steer shoppers away from certain retailers and products – citing causes from gay rights to getting the word “Christmas” more prominence.
These groups come from the left and the right, some urging boycotts of major retail chains, others seeking to influence buyers though company-by-company ratings or critiques of specific products. Some campaigns have little impact; others have prompted swift changes by management.
This year’s high-profile targets include retailers Sears and Target. In the eyes of some conservative activists, the companies make insufficient use of the word “Christmas.”
“When you take away ‘Christmas’ and replace it with a generic term like ‘holiday’, you take away the very essence of what is being celebrated,” said the Mississippi-based American Family Association.
Target Corp. says it will mention Christmas and other holidays in its marketing.
Sears gains high praise in a different initiative. The Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group, rates companies on such factors as whether they offer domestic-partner benefits and advertise in gay media.
Others with perfect scores included Walgreen Co., Microsoft Corp. and booksellers Borders Group Inc. Relatively low scores went to Radio Shack, Rite-Aid and discount chain Meijer Inc., among others.
