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)
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Just emailed the Beeb.Good idea from tallguy,we should spread the word.
@ur momisugly Simon Filiatrault
“Education based on science will save us from those swindler using animation to brainwash kids to their point of view – Humans are BAD!”
I think the intent behind the message given to children is more specifically “adults are BAD”. Or, still more specifically – “to be adult is BAD’. We need to remember that in the minds of those who indulge themselves as global-warming fantasists, ‘children’ are only one step above ‘animals’… harmless, cuddly, pliable and ‘innocent’. Indigenous adult populations of third-world countries come in just above children on this scale and all three groups sit just above plant-life.
The primary reason the Greens demand the third-world and its peoples remain undeveloped is that they wish to have a fixed Disney land full of all these various groups which they can take extended (government or trust-funded) vacations to and collectively indulge themselves in a condescending and patronising infantile pleasure of ‘saving the world’ – from BAD (ie: Western) adulthood.
This just in…
Global warming researchers develop new proxy based on the brightness of Rudolph’s nose!
A research team consisting of members from NASA, Penn State, and UEA have discovered a strong correlation between the brightness of Rudoph’s nose and North Pole temperature records. A spokesman for the group stated “It’s worse than we thought…our proxy data show an unprecedented increase in the brightness Rudolph nose which has persisted over the past decade. This has been demonstrated to be highly correlated with station records at Santa’s north pole factory.” Santa and Mrs. Claus are said to be concerned.
re: Steven Douglas- I guess you’ve noticed that Ferngully just got remade with grownup Smurfs as the starring characters and some HALO suits tossed in for grins.
Not to worry. I live here in St. Louis where Build-a-bear is based, and know several people who work/have worked there. The place is going down the tubes, as they focused too much of their expansion efforts on shopping malls, which are dying.
It was a great idea that continues to be hampered by poor execution. And this horrifying political cartoon on their website is just the latest example. They’re destined for the ashbin with or without a “WUWT boycott”.
Heres a more cheerful link for kids for christmas http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1529569286?bctid=5524339001. Perhaps Anthony you could make this a sticky for the christmas period
What’s the problem? Brainwash those kids I say.
Anyway children, in the UK at least, have been tucked up in bed for weeks crying themselves to sleep over their drowned pets. They have no time for the internet.
Perhaps we could have a WUWT version … “Hey kids look at the real Arctic (or the Polar Bear gets a 303 to the head)“
Tallbloke:
I have also sent an E-mail to the BBC.
I point out that whatever the global or even national issue is, a lot of adults have a hard time dealing with them mentaly, let alone kids.
As a young teenager I was indoctrinated by a teacher on the issue of Nuclear disarmement.
I still remember my feelings of fear and above all imoptence and being a deppressive anyway it just fueled my ‘Whats the bloody point’ attitude.
Guess what? I left school with NOTHING, bar a couple of CSE’s.Which for our American friends is worth less than second hand toilet paper.
tallbloke,
I took a look at the site — what a joke! They even claim that melting sea ice will raise ocean levels (I guess that works differently than ice cubes melting in a glass of water).
Have you ever noticed that the predicted consequences of global warming are universally bad? Floods, droughts, hurricanes, ticks, extinction, refugees, disease, etc. Never, ever a mention of any good whatsoever that might result if the planet warmed a few degrees. For example, wouldn’t it stand to reason that vast regions of presently barren permafrost would become fertile and habitable? That there might be more food rather than less for some varieties of cute, furry creatures? Or is it only the ticks and mosquitoes and malevolent germs that are expected to benefit?
“D. King (04:46:32) :
Bilderberg….Build-a-bear I don’t know, I’m just saying…”
I noticed that as well. But probably they just ordered their company name from a marketing dimwit who does too much cocaine who thought he was being funny. Well actually it is.
I can only recommend to all parents to let their kids grow up amongst all this marketing tripe and give them some real information along the way. The kids are very adept at seeing through all this after a while. Don’t get too agitated about it, it’s just a company trying to sell product.
I don’t blame them too much.
They are just caught up in the hype of a well orchestrated scam…..
As this rapidly unraveling saga unfolds they will probably be as horrified as the rest of us at the enormity of this foul fraud and the damage it has done.
I’d say Santa’s sleigh will be a lot lighter next year….Phil Jones, Micheal Mann, Al Gore, etc, will have been crossed off the nice list and added in underlined red ink on the Naughty list….;-)
**************
Peter S (04:36:12) :
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.
****************
GE definitely needs to be on the list. I read somewhere that they turn out a wind generator every three hours. The CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, is kow towing to the green movement. I seem him in a light simlilar to that of Al “The Liar” Gore and the head of Kookenhagan – they all have invested money in the “green” movement.
http://greenenergyreporter.com/2009/12/ges-jeff-immelt-to-u-s-climate-change-law-key-to-winning-renewable-energy-race/
It’s time to hit them where it hurts. WUWT has a huge audience. Let’s blacklist and stop shopping those with a knee-jerk to AGW.
The message should be, let’s let the real science coenence and act on that, and not CRU/ IPCC scaremongering.
Ice age ended by cavemen lighting campfires. This has been scientifically proven
and all other theories debunked by Al Gore a.k.a. Bullwinkle
Cavemen start Global Warming!
I Igor produce Obama Birth Certificate at http://www.igormaro.org
Compare Obama Care vs Igor Care at Obama Care vs Igor Care
This is a repeat of a prior post, so for that I apologize. But I expanded it some and I think it is germane:
I suggest we change the word “Denialist” or “Skeptic” (words assigned to us by the AGWers) to “Realist”. That puts the monkey back on the AGWers as being outside the realm of reality, which is truly the case.
We can take the moral high ground by calling ourselves Global Warming Realists, or Climate Change Realists. Our quest is for honest-to-goodness information and the utilization of unadulterated scientific methodology. It’s time our name reflected our views.
We must be proactive rather than reactive.
This explains why so many people outside the Czech Republic believe in global warming: they are actually taught that the gifts are being brought by Santa Claus who lives in the North Pole.
In reality, as every Czech or Austrian child knows (and some Germans know it as well – although the German-speaking kids think that the gift-giver is actually female), the gifts are being brought by Baby Jesus.
http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/12/santa-claus-vs-baby-jesus.html
And it’s just a fact that Baby Jesus doesn’t live on the North Pole. He lives on Godly Gift (“Boží dar”) in Ore Mountains (“Krušné hory”) which is not melting away anytime soon. They just opened a special post office over there where you can get the right stamp from Baby Jesus for your gifts. 😉
Merry Christmas!
I think they’ve backed down from this idiocy. This is a particularly stupid move for any company, especially in a recession.
Here is a letter I wrote to Maxine Clark:
Your attempts to brainwash young impresionable children with fictitious horrors of global warming are outrageous. I don’t blame people for boycotting your products. There are certainly many other suppliers of stuffed animals who do not engage in imposing their political ideology on young children
With 5 times the number of Polar Bears as in 1950, the “diminishing Sea Ice” will soon be overrun with them! Maneating beasts with poisonous livers taking over the Arctic.
Jones, Mann, Gore et al will be getting lumps of coal this Christmas.
Was it “build-a-bear” or “build-a-FEAR”. Don’t know if that was a typo. : )
Juraj V. (04:24:10) :
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.”
Amen.
Andrew
Dave UK (05:48:06) :
Couldn’t agree more!
CSE is no more than a certificate saying X attended school & isn’t a complete moron! (& that’s a grade 1)
I was supposed to have been put in for GCEs but wasn’t as the Headmaster didn’t believe in GCEs. His idea was that everyone should get a prize! (Typical bloody socialist). I had to go to tech college for further education despite getting grade 1s. Wasted a year! 🙁
Sorry to hear you were demoralised to that extent & happy you’ve recovered. 🙂
DaveE
sent to Guestcomments@buildabear.com. Dec 22, 2009
The more I thought about your webisodes about disappearing ice at the
North Pole, I realized how appropriate it was.
The imaginary loss of all the ice at the North Pole threatening an imaginary
character… Santa Claus. I hope the kids get the joke. I’m sure scaring
them was not Maxine Clark’s intent.
Just so you get the joke, I attached an image of Arctic ice from the National
Snow and Ice Data Center (http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/) for Dec 22,
2009. The plus sign marks the North Pole.
Lucky there’s no scientist Build-a-Bear. I’ll certainly keep this in mind when I
buy presents for my six (so-far) grandchildren.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Regards,
Bob Tatz
Luboš Motl (06:52:44) : Nice tale!. Merry Christmas!