Best Buy Black Friday Ad Includes Happy Eid al-Adha Message; Customers Complain
source: http://www.quickpwn.com/2009/11/best-buy-eid-al-adha-ad-causes-disappointment-to-many-a0224....
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- littleredmachine
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A topic on the Best Buy forums is full of 10 pages where customers are complaining about Best Buy wishing Muslims a happy Eid. As I was reading the topic I noticed that many people were saying that they will no longer shop at Best Buy, some were saying that Best Buy should have put something about Christmas, and some said that they were shocked. Due to the complaints by a lot of people, a Best Buy supervisor, Elizabeth had to post the following response:
Thanks for sharing your point of view regarding our recent ad, which included a wish for a “Happy Eid al-Adha”.
Best Buy’s customers and employees around the world represent a variety of faiths and denominations. We respect that diversity and choose to greet our customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions.
We do use the word “holiday” in some of our advertising because it is meant to be inclusive to everyone. However, just as we have in the past, we will also reference specific holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in our weekly ads, store signage and other advertising vehicles.
We encourage our employees to interact with customers naturally and feel free to wish them a Merry Christmas if they are celebrating that holiday. Thanks again for your feedback.
~Elizabeth
Community Supervisor
Best Buy® Corporate
I really don’t see anything wrong with Best Buy adding a “Happy Eid Al-Adha” text in their ad. It just proves that Best Buy appreciates diversity. It is unfortunate that people are taking other meanings from this ad. What are your thoughts on this? I’d like to end this post with: Happy Eid to any of our readers who are celebrating Eid this week, and happy Thanksgiving to any of our readers who are celebrating Thanksgiving this week.
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So what do Current members think of this? Do you see a problem with Best Buy acknowleding a Muslim holiday? Or do you see a problem with people taking offense?
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- groups:
- Community, Current Tonight
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- tags:
- News, Religion, Islam, Advertising, 4 more
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littleredmachine
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I'm quite irritated that anyone would make a big deal out of this. We live in a multi-cultural society. Retailers should either acknowledge every holiday or none at all. A few years ago we witnessed the backlash when retailers chose exclusively to use the all-inclusive term "holidays." Now retailers are deciding to recognize all religious holidays during this winter season (well, not really all, but the more well known/celebrated ones) and people are again up in arms. Why should an ad say Merry Christmas during the week of Thanksgiving? It's not Christmas yet!
That anyone would refuse to shop at a store that recognizes the holiday of a religion other than one's own is indicative of an extreme problem in modern American culture.
- 2 years ago
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littleredmachine
