It’s one thing when you are bombarded daily by news articles, it’s quite another when you want to buy a custom teddy bear and are treated to a video lecture on global warming. That’s why I’ll never buy anything from this company and advise my family and friends with children to avoid them also.
www.buildabear.com – their main page below looks just like any normal toy page with a Christmas theme, but visit the games section and you enter a whole new winter wonderland.
Apparently “build-a-bear” is quite the fad, now in 17 countries. But they had a dirty little secret, they were pushing an agenda under the guise of a cartoon designed to entertain the kids.
Maura Flynn writes at biggovernment.com
Attention Santas:
This missive is directed at the guardians of, and donors to, tiny humans. If you fall into that category you likely are already familiar with Build-A-Bear, a world-wide corporation that provides the most innocent of services. They sell customizable stuffed animals. Make your own bear, dog…penguin. Cute concept.
So cute, in fact, that the Build-A-Bear empire sweeps across nearly every state and into 17 other countries. You’ll find their outlets in shopping malls everywhere and even some ballparks. The company also has a website called Build-A-Bearville.com where children can play an interactive video game that, on it’s surface, is unlikely to raise suspicion or sound alarms.
But when your unsuspecting tot logs on and hops a virtual train to the North Pole…you should know that he or she will be informed — by Santa Claus — that Christmas may be canceled this year due to Global Warming. Below is part two of the 3-part video.
Here’s an excerpt (1:07-2:22):
Girl Elf: Santa, it’s gone!
Papa Elf: It’s gone, It’s gone!
Santa: What’s gone?
Girl Elf: Tell ‘em, Dad!
Papa Elf: The North Peak.
Santa: A mountain? A mountain’s gone? How is that possible?
Ella the polar bear: Santa, sir, that’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re here. The ice is melting!
Santa: Yes, my dear, we know, the climate is changing. There’s bound to be a little melting.
Ella: It’s worse than that, Santa, a lot worse! At the rate it’s melting, the North Pole will be gone by Christmas!”
Santa: My, my…all of this gone by next Christmas? I don’t think so.
Ella: No sir, not next Christmas, this Christmas! The day after tomorrow!
And this is merely the tip of the dialogue iceberg, if you’ll forgive me for putting it that way. You can view parts one and three here and here. Children of the world can look forward to priceless exchanges such as, “Oh my! Where will the polar bears live?” and my personal fave: “Where will the elves live?”
I suspect you’d like to think it can’t get any worse than that. Thus, it pains me to tell you that animated characters actually break into a discussion of satellite photos and that Mrs. Claus conducts a rather unscientific experiment involving ice cubes.
Needless-to-say, this constitutes brainwashing on the sleaziest and most sinister level. The good news is that this nonsense isn’t coming from our government this time and the rocky economy is our friend here. People, we have the means, if we have the will, to topple these charlatans who shamelessly prey on little children. So boycott Build-A-Bear. And, more importantly, tell the world why.
They apparently have been getting overwhelmed with letters, because today they posted this:
December 22, 2009
We have received inquiries regarding our online webisodes and would like to provide you with the following information.
Our goal is to entertain and engage the imagination of children with our stuffed animals, our store environment, and online. 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. We did not intend to politicize the topic of global climate change or offend anyone in any way. The webisodes concluded this week with Santa successfully leaving on his journey to deliver gifts around the world. The webisodes will no longer be available on the site.
I started Build-A-Bear Workshop as a place for families and children to come for a fun experience combining imagination, creativity and empowerment. I have always placed great value in the trust that our Guests have in our brand.
At Build-A-Bear Workshop we also strive to encourage kids to help others by participating in their communities. We listen to parents and kids about topics that they are interested in and care about. We especially value the input of parents. We are listening and taking all points of view into consideration for the future.
If you have questions, please contact us:
Guests with questions should contact:
Guest services
314-423-8000
866-232-7269
Media with questions should contact:
Jill Saunders
314-423-8000 ext. 5293
314-422-4523 (cell)
Investors with Questions should contact:
Investor Relations
314-423-8000 ext.5353
Sincerely,
Maxine Clark
Founder and Chief Executive Bear
Build-A-Bear Workshop
There’s an important word missing from that letter, that word is “apology”. Global Warming and Christmas have no business being together, and hopefully this will be a lesson for other companies that try to put an agenda into children’s stories. Sadly, I suspect we’ll see more of this though.
If you already bought one of these, my advice is to call their customer service and ask for a full refund.
(toll free) 1-877-789-BEAR (2327)
That’s appalling, but not as bad as the UK government actually drowning cartoon pets…
Of course, Satan…I mean Santa, as we know him to be, didn’t exist until about 1840, thanks to the US media. But St Nick, he was real and a true saint.
OT, but news reports here in Sydney, Australia, it’s quite warm here tonight actually, about a harsh winter, the worst in living memory (Apparently), cars being stranded, Basingstoke “shutdown” (LMAO).
Reminds me of the ’70’s. As for “British Rail”, wrong snow, every year since I can recall, delays have been caused buy the “wrong leaves” on the lines.
What is wrong with you heartless people on this website? Don’t you have any sympathy for the poor lil’l animated polar bear? I was not a believer until I saw that movie, but now I’m signing up for green peace.
I was in the gym yesterday and, I am not kidding, there was a single cross training machine out of about 30 that had a sign on it: “Switched off to reduce our Carbon Footprint” … they did have about 10 televisions on with one of them showing “snow” (i.e. it was not tuned in).
People have gone crazy. They feel good that they are “combating climate change”, “doing their bit” etc… Makes me sick the way they think they are doing something good when they could go out and actually do some real good. It is a time and effort tax on doing good, because so many well intentioned people are wasting their time on this stupid, pointless lie.
Tallbloke that BBC link has this to say to children about global warming:
“Water expands when it’s heated so sea levels could rise.”
it’s propoganda from the UK AGW press office aimed at scaring children!
Remember when you were a kid and it dawned on you that adults had no clue about anything?
This entire generation is being set up for one huge collective rebellion against all things liberal and green. Sad, both have their strong points, but once they realize that the terror and panic they’ve been indoctrinated with since early childhood is complete nonsense, done for no other reason than to control their behavior, then both viewpoints will be regarded with deep suspicion from that moment on.
Indoctrinate young. How well they do it, even better now then when I was in school and there were people trying to drive stuff into our heads that was all doom and gloom. I swear these people are trying to make a world full of paranoid schizoids.
Hey, chill. Build-a-bear have done nothing wrong, and Maxine’s letter was fine. Not everyone thinks about AGW, reads ClimateAudit and WUWT, and has an interest in sceptical scientific thinking. Some people run teddy-bear companies. That they have been convinced that AGW is real, and a threat, is not surprising given the apparent consensus.
I had 5 21 year-olds in the car Monday night. I asked them, on a scale of 1 to 10, how serious they thought man-made global warming was as an issue. 2 said 10, 3 said 7. And I could hear their hackles rise when I asked why.
The AGW consensus have done a tremendously effective job, also, for the young, of melding sustainability, pollution, aid, and AGW into one blurry mass.
I wonder what the carbon footprint is of 8 flatulent reindeers.
The indoctrination of children seems to be the name of the game, now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8426269.stm
Deceiver.com has a very humorous take on the story along with updated information on the video and company:
http://deceiver.com/2009/12/23/build-a-boycott/
Worth a read.
Of course we can’t read the minds of the Build-A-Bear employees who came up with this theme, so it could be a purely commercial attempt to exploit a current topic, but equally we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was a genuine attempt to help educate kids about just how serious global warming is. After all, today’s kids are the ones who are going to have to be dealing with it when they’re adults.
The realists need to organise, join as one, and take them on at their own game – if the finances can be raised. A free (thought and content) newspaper; a free news television channel; a free radio channel; party political broadcasts; a single umbrella website with links to websites such as this etc, etc.
At the moment we are fragmented – we need to unite our efforts.
The left has a habit of trying to use fantasy as a propaganda tool for indoctrination. I can think of a lot of examples, but one that got to me when my children were young was the movie Fern Gully – all about faeries who live under a rainforest canopy. Through deforestation humans cut down a an old “tree prison”, and release the evil “Hexus”, a demon-like entity who finds a tool that he can use to wreak havoc on the earth -namely, O-I-L-L-L-L. Dirty, evil, filthy, deadly, horrible oil. So the villains in the movie are Hexus, evil, dirty oil, and stupid greedy humans.
I was seething at the time, but my kids never got the message intended by the moviemakers. They loved it, and It was just another fantasy cartoon to them. Nothing real about it. That actually set me at ease.
In reality, the cute little polar bear girls would have stayed away from each other (unless they both had cubs), and each would have hunted down, ripped to pieces, and eaten their little penguin friend Kelvin. And Santa and his elves and flying reindeer, well, that’s another story, but when you think about it, combined together, the entire movie is nothing more than a string of manmade fantasies, including catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
Personally, I think their work should be encouraged. By getting the impending catastrophic crisis down to a single day, what did they do but highlight the apex of where the CAGW crowd is headed, with their increasingly shrill alarms – wherein “things are actually even much worse than we thought” part of their predictable MO.
Personally, I think they should be giving a medal of some kind, for finally putting CAGW squarely in its proper context!
The Catlin Ice Survey crew actually did make it to the North Pole, but their findings were suppressed.
http://i45.tinypic.com/epiwqo.jpg
This fits in with the post I made under “Tips & Notes to WUWT”
Think of the children –
Turning children into Orwellian eco-spies
A few excerpts –
“There is a long and sordid tradition of trying to socialise children by scaring them. The aim of such socialisation-through-fear is twofold: firstly, to get children to conform to the scaremongers’ values; secondly, to use children to influence, or at least to contain, their parents’ behavior.”
“By transmitting their values to children, the scaremongers hope to channel children’s indignation into hostility towards older generations that are apparently destroying the planet”
“A similar message is communicated by one of Britain’s leading green crusaders, who recently informed children that ‘your parents and grandparents have made a mess of looking after the Earth.’ ”
“Politicians and governments have embraced environmental education as a potentially effective instrument for influencing and managing the behaviour of the public”
tallbloke (00:22:30) :
I am with you, absolutely horrifying, i have written a strong Email to the BBC web site but had to lie, at 71 years old I don’t have a parent or guardian to give me permission.
Please read the crap at http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_1570000/newsid_1575400/1575495.stm
and join Tallbloke in his campaign
Children just don’t have opinions. So dont create one. Not just yet. Let them decide when they are 18 or 21(18year olds vote what there parants vote, ore then opposite just to be a manice)
My daughter bought those things when she was younger, now at 14, she fully understand the extent of the brainwashing being imposed by the “green” industry and she is disgusted by it. I present to her both side of the debate and let her choose.
She is well aware of the choices we need to take as a society and did science fair projects on garbage pyrolysis to recycle 100% of what we produce. She also did a presentation and model of a high speed maglev train to get away from using oil for transport.
Education based on science will save us from those swindler using animation to brainwash kids to their point of view – Humans are BAD!
Here a link to her work on the maglev:
http://simonfiliatrault.blogspot.com/2008/05/prsentation-train-lvitation-magntique.html
Ah, come on guys. You are sounding just like some of our paranoid citizens who complained about Obama’s indoctrination.
The same people who made these videos in the belief that they can ‘educate’ children about global warming also believe in global warming. Kids brainwashed about something are the foundation for the most potent backlash and the greens are simply clueless in this regard. Have some faith on our kids.
School-teacher based brainwashing has always been the green methodology.
Bill Williams (03:03:28) :
Re: Santa article in the BBC website:
Like Karsa Orlong would say – ‘too many words’.
Want to send Maxine Clark a Merry Christmas message?
http://tinyurl.com/yc9nryy
Thanks to these loons, Sir Topham Hatt can’t find enough funds to buy carbon credits, so the whole Sodor railway operation appears to be in jeopardy. Just as well – Thomas and Percy are getting tired of the children of Sodor spitting on them and calling them Planet Killers.
Or maybe that was B-a-B’s plan all along…
As Bible says
“It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
It’s time for Anthony’s site to encourage a mass boycotting of products from the worst companies to exploit AGW alarmism. Goodness knows our democratic mechanisms are already being rolled back by Big State, so the rights of the consumer become the most powerful (and perhaps, only) tool to use against this mindless collusion.
On a different note, it’s interesting to see the minds of global-warming alarmists appear to indulge in elaborate fantasies concerning the harming young children. We have already seen this fantasy expressed in the British CO2 ‘fairytale’ advert and I think it is also behind the ‘projection’ onto others of a preoccupation with harming future “children and grandchildren”.
Adding this to the underlying wish to return the world to some sort of pre-adult existence (along with a refusal to get on with adult life) reveals the ‘warmers’, I think, to be harbouring some unresolved deeply infantile need.
Jason (02:11:14) :
Tallbloke that BBC link has this to say to children about global warming:
“Water expands when it’s heated so sea levels could rise.”
it’s propoganda from the UK AGW press office aimed at scaring children!
A 0.3C rise in temperature at the sea surface causes around one inch of sea level rise due to thermal expansion. So the entire 20th century warming caused around a two inch rise in sea level.
Do you think scaring kids about the habitability of the planet on the back of a two inch sea level rise is reasonable rational or responsible?
Bilderberg….Build-a-bear I don’t know, I’m just saying…