Posted on 08/15/2013 9:29:31 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
A JCPenney back-to-school ad that implies kids will be friendless unless they wear the right clothing is promoting bullying, charged a flurry of critics on social media this week.
“Your ad about cool kids wearing JCPenney clothes, showing a child sitting alone at lunch is despicable,” fired off one Facebook user. Another added, “How clueless are you? What a horrible bully-promoting commercial.” Twitter users have called it “tone deaf” and “more self-immolation” for the company.
The ad, posted online by the retailer in late July and aired as part of a TV campaign earlier this summer, includes a shot of a kid in a school cafeteria, surrounded by friends. When the mom in the voice-over talks about the importance of buying her child cool school clothes, she notes, “I’ve been told this stuff can make or break your entire year.” At that moment, all the kids except for one disappear from the room.
That message was enough to prompt the national antibullying organization Stand for the Silent to kick off a campaign against the ad.
“My wife and I lost our 11-year-old son to suicide due to being bullied, and yes ma'am we do oppose this ad,” founder Kirk Smalley told Yahoo! Shine in an email. “We feel it does promote excluding kids that don't wear the ‘right’ clothes. This is totally against what we have spent our entire savings on and the last three years of our lives traveling to speak at schools and teach these kids. We've spoken at 715 schools and to over 740,000 kids and taught them, ‘You are somebody,’ and that you are not what you wear, what religion you believe, what color your skin, etc.”
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
Who’s downplaying bullying?
It’s simply not in the ad.
Arrgh, enough with PC bully bs. There are much more important “issues” out there than bullies.
Black mob violence.
WIN!
J C Penny clothes are not “cool”.
When I was in second grade, I was being bullied and my parents encouraged me to “go punch him in the nose”.
I did. And it stopped.
Today they’d likely be brought up on charges.
Yep. It's one of my pet peeves as well.
I was bullied. I lived.
No, what I wonder about is what happens when one of these elite, sheltered children runs headlong into life? Either a boss who pushes too far, or a self-important "Public Servant", or any one of the innumerable difficult people you and I trip over every day? Are they going to run for the nearest grownup to "Moderate the Conversation"?
My wife saw that last night and said to me, it looks like they are going for the ghetto business. I asked her when was the last time she went to K-Mart?
After a minute, she told me last year when she was visiting a friend IN ANOTHER CITY, cause it was the closest to her that day.
No. And I’m outraged that you would even ask that question.
Not just true, but very effective. I know firsthand. After I kicked the right kid's a** at the right time, the bullying ended. As far as not being easy, what else worthwhile is? It's easier in the long run than continually being picked on. Again, I know firsthand.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Everything is a dog whistle nowadays.
You've noticed that, too, huh?
Buy dese hoodies o get you cracka ass beat!
And K-Mart has gone ghetto. Pathetic.
We have turned into such a pathetic nation.
Got a link?
******************************
There's a least one other ad out there with children who I can't for the life of me understand. I don't even know what it's trying to sell, because the (presumably American) children seem to be speaking a foreign language.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.