The AFA's Naughty or Nice List: Foot Locker

Our debunking of the American Family Association's annual Naughty or Nice retailer list continues today with Foot Locker. (If you're not familiar with this list or why we write about it every year, see our intro post here.) The AFA has put Foot Locker on their red list this year, which means they consider them to be a company that is "against Christmas" and that "may use "Christmas" sparingly in a single or unique product description, but as a company, does not recognize it". Let's investigate that.

Foot Locker uses the tagline "Celebrate Kicksmas" for their holiday advertising. Here's a screenshot from their website:



They also have a Kicksmas calendar that lists different deals and events and product introductions for the holiday season.



Kicksmas...hmmm, this seems to be a play on words of some kind. But which popular winter holiday could they possibly be referencing? Maybe that vaguely tree-shaped and star-topped object made of shoes in the image up above holds some kind of clue. Hey, you know what, you guys? I think they just might be talking about Christmas!

I understand that the AFA complains about stores saying "happy holidays" because they feel that the retailers are trying to make money from Christmas shoppers while refusing to specifically acknowledge the holiday that they're shopping for. (I don't agree with it, but I understand it.) But that's clearly not what's happening here. "Kicksmas" just seems like an attempt at a clever reference to their products, not to censor the word Christmas.

The AFA may feel like this isn't the best way to reference Christmas since Foot Locker is literally taking 'Christ' out by changing it to Kicksmas. But their red list is supposed to be for retailers that are against Christmas and refuse to acknowledge it, not stores who just happen to acknowledge it in a way that doesn't earn them an AFA gold star. We're rooting for Foot Locker to at least get bumped up to the yellow list by next year. Merry Kicksmas!