You know and I know that 300 million children probably won’t get a Christmas present by clicking on Northpole.com’s website - but how many children know that? When they go to Santa’s mailroom at the site they are invited to enter their name and e-mail address and then choose the type of gift they want for Christmas before clicking on send. If they check computer software as their choice of gift, for instance, this is what Santa will write back to them:
“I see that you like computer software. I like computers too. You can learn about all kinds of things on the computer, and it’s a lot of fun, too! There are games, stories, puzzles and many other activities that are fun to explore. The elves have been very busy this year finding many new computer software games for Christmas!”
Is that sadistic or not?
Does anyone else agree that Northpole.com is implying children will receive a gift and a letter from Santa rather than just a letter? As far as I’m concerned the whole thing is the work of Dr Evil.
Should a child young enough to believe in Santa be allowed to access a site like that to begin with?
I mean, how many 8 yr olds do email?
As I don’t have kids, I am probably wrong…just bury me with my beloved TEAC reel to reel, and throw in a couple 8 tracks. If you tell me 8 yr olds do email, I will feel really old.
Sorry, Klaatu, 8yos do use email. My 8 and 11 yos have their own email addresses. The 8yo IMs his dad after school so they can chat.
He had his own taste of the real world the other day when he attempted to check some “special codes” inside a cereal box to see if he had won a prize. Before being allowed to check the codes he was asked for a bunch of personal information, which I, as his parent, was asked to confirm by either placing a phone call (where, I was promised, I would be given the opportunity to listen to some “information”) or by giving them my credit card number. (?!?!) I explained that I really didn’t want to give them our address/phone number/email just so they could try to sell us something. He agreed that, with the probablility of prizes being obviously low, he didn’t need to continue. He was outraged that we had to go through a lengthy process to figure this out, though. “They never let us check the code numbers. They just kept asking us for more stuff. It’s not fair!”
This Christmas site seems particularly mean, though. And I don’t doubt at all that there will be plenty of disappointed children.
Well, it just hits a very off note, that’s all. If, as an adult, I had a reasonable expectation of receiving, say, a sample lipstick by checking a box on a website and instead received a message similar to Northpole.com’s, I’d feel a little humiliated.
I had an idea for an anti-cigarette commercial once that was supposed to generate the same sort of feeling of betrayal. It would start with a smoker giving an honest account of what smoking meant to him/her. How cigarettes were trusty friends always on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of life’s few luxuries at an insignificant price etc etc etc. At that point a cigarette would jump out and massacre the narrator leaving them in a state of eternal torture begging for release (like something from Hellraiser). The “friendly” cigarettes would not notice this and would say “go on have another” and accuse the smoker of not playing the game, of being a spoilsport. I think this commercial would lose it’s edge as a cartoon though - I never knew what format it should be in. I don’t know why I typed that - the similarity between that and santa’s mailbox is too subjective. Nevermind.
I don’t know how much risk is involved in critising a company like Northpole.com. But what the hell - I’ve been publicly critical of so many people this year that I’m probably already on a hit list. I’ve written letters to newspaper editors and had them published and I’ve said things here. Maybe I should stop for awhile.
Damn, that is cruel. Even fairly young kids can have a startling degree of technical profiency (at least it startles me sometimes), but that doesn’t mean they have the sophistication–or cynicism–to see through this kind of scam. They may be using a computer, but they still have a kid’s perception.
Nicky is 5 and he has his own computer. He doesn’t have email but he does use AIM. He can’t read more than 5 or 6 words, so mostly he just likes the exchange of random strings of letters, and making good use of smileys. I think that the site is a bit disingenious and I’d probably not encourage Nicky to use it… (he spends most of his time at battlebots.com anyway)
Ho Ho Ho. Hi, pepperlandgirl, I see you like outrage. My elves have been hard at work this holiday season finding new kinds of outrage for good kids just like you. Ho Ho Ho. Merry Christmas. Oh yeah, and be sure to visit www.stupidadvertiser.com for some important information.
Wow! You’ve got an amazingly creative choice in gifts! Our elves have been working 'round the clock, for the past three months, looking for a Goatfelcher, just for you!! Because we know that you’ve been extra-extra-super-good this year!
Okay, here’s a response from a concerned parent: [insert barf smilie here] Talk about your totally blatant effort to gather marketing information from naive kids! Talk about your virtual stranger in the trench coat offering candy if they’ll just get in the car! The toys in the Toy Selection are in broad marketing categories (they don’t get to select a specific toy, like Orthodontist Barbie):
Bikes
Stuffed Animals
Trains
Books
Automobile
Dolls
Building Sets
Crafts
Sports Stuff
Board Games
Computer Software
Models
No modern kid who is old enough to type on a computer and who has enough computer (and consumer) savvy to surf the Internet is going to believe for a minute that just because he clicks on “Bikes”, that means Santa’s going to bring him that particular mountain bike he’s had his eye on. I’m with Lucky–this strikes me as just an electronic version of writing a letter to Santa. Most kids don’t seriously expect Santa to pony up just because they wrote a letter in purple crayon and gave it to Daddy.
But zounds! talk about chutzpah! Here’s their privacy policy, it’s a real hoot. http://northpole.com/privacy.html Notice the repeated use of the phrase “personally identifiable”–in other words, the only thing they won’t give out to a third party is your child’s first name and password. Everything else is up for grabs.
If you go into The Toy Shop, it has clickthroughs to toy-selling websites, etoys.com among others. Wanna bet Northpole.com gets a fee for that?
Also, it looks to me like Northpole.com is either sponsored by or belongs to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. They’ve got a big logo box on the home page, and if you click on Wrap Your Holiday Gifts, you find yourself at the St. Jude’s online gift shop. If you want to send somebody a nastygram, send it to St. Jude’s.
This is a bit of a hijack, but in the case of paper letters, there is a chance that they will get answered. In New York City, the Post Office collects all the “Dear Santa” letters and puts them out in boxes at the main post office branch (33rd & 8th Ave.). Customers are encouraged to browse, then take one or more letters and fulfill some kid’s Christmas dreams. All the letters I’ve seen there have been from poor people (asking for “a warm winter jacket” for their kids, or any clothing at all, giving sizes, or asking for anything to brighten a child’s Christmas morning). People at my company answered about 400 letters this year, and over 300 last year. I don’t think the same is true of the emails. (And of course, the kids who write with pen and paper probably don’t have a computer or Internet access.)
I think it is more cruel for parents to let their
children believe in Santa in the first place!
I still remember to this day exactly how let down
and depressed I was when I found out that Santa wasn’t
real. It totally overshadows any joy that I may have
experienced (in terms of memory) from believing that he did exist. It told me that my parents couldn’t be trusted. For
them to build my expectations up so high only to have
them shattered to pieces was “cruel” ,to say the least.
Maybe I was just an oversensitive child but I know
what I felt, and I wouldn’t risk putting my child through
that. My daughter is now almost 5 and she’s always known
Santa as nothing more than a symbol of Christmas. As a
matter of fact, just today someone asked her what Santa
gave her for Christmas and she replied: “My Mommy and
Daddy said that Santa wasn’t real, and I believe them”.
Am I the only one who was traumatized by this? If so,
my hat’s off to all of you.
