• Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:37 AM

The dancers in the new Gap holiday ad merrily chant "Go Christmas, go Hanukkah, go Kwanzaa, go solstice," effectively rendering moot the American Family Association's earlier "fatwa" against the brand for "failure to use the word 'Christmas in its advertising to Christmas shoppers,'" Dan Neil reports. AFA had called for a two-month boycott of the brand.

But Neil points out that the Gap's 30-second "Go Ho Ho" spot "features a group of insanely athletic dancers leaping and twirling and stomp-cheering around a white log-cabin set. They chant, 'Go Christmas, go Hanukkah, go Kwanzaa, go solstice. . . . Do whatever you wannukkah and to all a cheery night.'"

The reality, Neil writes, is that a boycott call by the AFA is historically good for business. Past targets include Disney and Ford, which seem to be doing fine (if you ignore the impact of the recession). Another reality is that "the annual War-on-Christmas drumbeat is absolutely not about defending the sacredness of Christmas. It is instead -- transparently -- marketing," Neil writes, "a ratings gambit for Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, and for the AFA, the centerpiece of its annual fundraising."

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