Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass describes how a marketing campaign
from the Sony Corporation is stealing Santa Claus from little children.
Surely, our nation does not need to calibrate itself around the minds of
cynical white suburban male teenagers with money or at least access to
it.

Kelly

From the Chicago Tribune
John Kass

Sony is Grinch who stole Santa from little kids

Published December 11, 2001


Griffin Shaw is a 3-year-old boy. And like many little boys, Griffin
believes in Santa Claus.

On Christmas Eve he planned to leave a mug of hot cocoa near the
fireplace for the jolly man in the red suit and white beard.

But that was before the giant Sony Corp.--the maker of PlayStation and
video games--did something evil.

Sony reached out and slapped the Santa right out of little Griffin's
head.

So now, Griffin has had his mind filled with scary Santa visions:

Visions of burnout Santas.

Derelict Santas fetching drinks at a dice game.

Stew-bum Santas.

Merry Christmas, Sony, you creeps.

Amy Shaw, her husband, Chris, and Griffin recently settled down on the
living room couch to watch the old animated classic "Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer" on CBS-TV.

"`Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was on, the same one from when I was a
kid," Amy Shaw said. "And so my husband and I and Griffin--and we have a
baby on the way--we all sat down to watch it.

"The first commercial to come on was this Sony PlayStation commercial
with these really gross, derelict Santas. Santas with stubble. They
looked totally like drug addicts. And they were all half-dressed in
their Santa uniforms.

"I didn't really get the gist of it. It looked like it was depicting a
department store break room. And my son noticed it before we did.

"He was staring at the TV. I said, `Oh my God!' And we turned the
channel.

"But it was really upsetting to him. He was asking, `Well, who is that?
Why were there so many of them? They didn't look like Santa!'

"My husband and I were really peeved because he's only 3. He's still in
the height of the whole Santa mania."

She understands that Sony is in a desperate war with Nintendo and other
game console manufacturers.

Video games are aimed at teenage boys who have money. If video games
disappeared, the economy would be ruined.

"I know who they were trying to appeal to," Amy Shaw said. "They were
trying to appeal to totally jaded 14-year-old boys. But those aren't the
people who are watching `Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'

"And so they just showed these really junky-looking Santas. They looked
like homeless people! This is the first year that my son is really
conscious of the whole magic of Christmas. And we've been having so much
fun decorating the tree and writing letters to Santa and the whole bit."

I haven't seen the allegedly offensive commercial. So we called Sony for
a copy and got the runaround from a Sony bureaucrat in public relations.

"I just wanted to talk to you about that and just get the reasoning and
what's going on regarding what use you would need that ad spot," said
Sony spokesman Darren Horowitz in California. "And from there we can
figure out if it's appropriate and would work to send you the
appropriate spot."

Appropriate? Appropriate?

Mr. Horowitz must think Sony is my editor. Later, in a trembling voice,
he accused me of being rude. Imagine.

That was a week ago and still no copy of the offending commercial from
Sony. This is odd because millions of little Santa-loving children have
probably seen it, which means millions of little tots have had the Santa
whipped out of them.

Sony has a history of embracing Christmas cheer. Last year, it produced
a series of TV commercials that showed St. Nick getting chloroformed,
dumped in a car and held hostage.

"We have Santa! Shop at Sonystyle.com or there will be no Xmas!" Sony
declared.

Unfortunately for me, the ads were pulled before they aired.

For an impartial view I called my cousin Dino Pappas, a 13-year-old
video game expert, who saw the stew-bum Santa commercial.

"I saw it, it was funny," Dino said. "There were these tough Santas
playing video games. They looked mean. One guy has a psycho grin on his
face. They were playing PlayStation. They were bums. It looked cool."

I would have thought so, too, at that age. Even at 18, 30 or 44.

But it shouldn't have been broadcast during a cozy Christmas cartoon
about Rudolph, aimed at young children, like little Griffin Shaw.

"These years are so precious," Amy Shaw said. "Then some jerky company
tries to take it away from you."

Griffin? Don't believe the evil Sony people.

There is a Santa Claus, and he'll be stopping by your house in Oak Park
on Christmas Eve.

Count on it.

And then he'll visit the Sony people. He'll bring them pieces of coal
and onions.

Or he might bring some brass knuckles and give Sony bosses some special
Christmas cheer.

Ho-ho-ho.

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