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Build-a-Bear takes heat for global-warming webisodes  LA Times   (Mcclatchy Newspapers)

Conservative bloggers are calling for a boycott of the company. Executives say the series, in which Santa is warned the North Pole could melt before Christmas, was intended to inspire children.

St. Louis - First, Chicken Little warned children that the sky was falling. And now Build-a-Bear Workshop has warned children that the North Pole could disappear before Christmas. The Missouri-based company has found itself in hot water, defending an animated series on its website featuring polar bears, penguins and Mrs. Claus, as Santa is warned that global warming is "a serious situation."

Conservative bloggers reposted the videos online and called for a boycott of the toy company, saying Build-a-Bear should not be presenting a political stance to children.

The company relented, took down the videos and posted on its website a letter from Build-a-Bear founder and Chief Executive Maxine Clark. "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," Clark wrote. "We did not intend to politicize the topic of global climate change or offend anyone in any way."

....

Darren Pope, a writer for Examiner.com, was one of the harshest critics of the videos, in which a polar bear named Ella tells Santa: "At the rate it's melting, the North Pole will be gone by Christmas." In a letter to Clark, which he posted online, Pope wrote: "It is one thing to use fear mongering and scare tactics when attempting to win adults over to a particular point of view, it is quite another when using those tactics against very young, impressionable children."


Next we confidently expect Darren Pope to take equally vigorous stands against advertisers pitching their products to pre-schoolers.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 01:25:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
There we have it: global warming is not a physical phenomenon, but a mere "political stance".

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
by Bernard on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 06:41:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
No global warming just a conspiracy by DFHs to spoil everyone's fun and try to force everyone to become vegetarian and give up their guns to United  Nations forces who are poised to invade as the first sign that American Communism is succeeding.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 08:37:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Is Build-A-Bear a deviously named branch of the Bilderberg Group?

We Must Be Told.

"Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 09:39:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Now you mention it, the connection is obvious ;-))

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 10:11:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Is Build-A-Bear a deviously named branch of the Bilderberg Group?

Only by virtue of Lloyd Blankfein's obvious membership! After all, Build-A-Bear is an obvious confession to being responsible for the GFC. Just another devious plot by Goldman-Sachs to profit from the crash.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 11:56:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You say that like it would be a bad thing.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Dec 26th, 2009 at 10:32:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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