Sears and Zombies: Department Store Exploits the Differently Animated to Sell Recliners, Televisions
After receiving multiple informant tips about Sears running a big Zombie themed promotion online, I went to the site today expecting a casual re-skinning job, the sort of thing many sites do for a brief holiday advertising event. Instead I found a fairly deep multimedia experience, with layers upon layers of Undead related content. For this promotion, Sears has a twitter feed, a youtube channel, a flashy sub-section of their main website, even a service to recommend products for Zombies to purchase.
It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Sadly, that suspicion turned out to be correct, for this site is, upon closer examination, not designed to cater to an underserved portion of the populace but rather to exploit harmful stereotypes about them to sell home products.
In truth, they’re not exactly subtle about their negative perspective on the Differently Animated. For an example, check out some of the graphics they use to build the website.
Note the harmful stereotypes Sears is peddling about the Differently Animated customers they’re supposedly targeting with these ads. Honestly, is there any more cliche and bigoted assertion about Zombies than the notion that they all ravenously, and ceaselessly crave human brains?
Is Sears aware that this particular trope originates in fiction, specifically the odious Return of the Living Dead, and is a gross distortion of the actual relationship of Zombies to human brains? (Yes, some Differently Animated individuals require nutrition derived from brain, but this hardly defines them as fully realized individuals. Brain of one type or another, particularly from cattle, is eaten all around the world, yet you don’t see French people defamed for their cuisine)
Sears is even floating the idea of a specific Zombie language, ‘Zombian’, which is made up of groans and slurred words, many of which sound like ‘brain’. I don’t have a clue what they’re trying to say here; that Zombies are only able to communicate in stereotypical movie Zombie ‘speech’, but that this constitutes a language, so it’s not all bad? Talk about a mixed message. For the record, Zombies speak the same languages as the rest of humanity, and we don’t need to make up some faux linguistic discipline to isolate them.
The site is laden with features exhibiting this same attitude of casual defamation toward the Differently Animated, always emphasizing their alleged differences with the Living, rather than the host of similarities, shared hopes, dreams and ambitions they possess alongside their traditionally animated counterparts.
In particular, they prominently showcase a recommendation feature, allegedly intended to help Zombies find products they would enjoy, after filling out simple survey of sorts. However, examine the options they present here to the Differently Animated:
Yes, once again, all Zombies insatiably crave brains, and Sears alleges, most of them are pretty unpleasant to be around as well. This is supposed to encourage Zombies to spend their hard earned money at your store? Somehow I doubt it.
If you complete the process of telling Sears what sort of ‘Zombie’ you happen to be, with what socially undesirable traits, you are sent to a screen something like this one:
As you can see, Sears doesn’t actually have products in mind for the Zombie community; rather, they want to exploit the image of Zombies, in this most sensitive time of the year no less, to sell generic consumer goods with no particular bearing on Zombie life.
It goes further; in addition to the website, Sears is also running a ‘zombieshopper’ Twitter feed to push their goods and spread awareness of the campaign to sell furniture by bashing Zombies. Here you can see a representative sample, illustrating the kind of marketing push they have in mind.
“Zombies eat people, Zombies love brains, Zombies have to wear a disguise to POSE as members of the human race. ” Sears is striking savage rhetorical blows against the Differently Animated, peddling Anti-Zombie hate, and to what end? To promote their holiday sales rush?
It even extends to a series of Youtube videos mocking the Zombie community as patrons. The most famous of these is the ‘Fitness for Zombies’ video, giving a hard sell on exercise equipment to the Undead patron… in part by selling them on extraneous features like heart rate monitors.
Seriously? You’re trying to sell Zombies heart rate monitors? Are you even paying the remotest attention when you make these videos, Sears?
Appalling. Here the venerable department store had a chance to be bold, innovative and at the same time work toward a noble humanitarian goal, helping raise public awareness of the Differently Animated and striving to increase tolerance and understanding at the most trying time of the year.
Instead they crack cheap Anti-Zombie jokes and sell mixers. Utterly disgusting.
(All images belong to Sears and are used here in the spirit of journalistic criticism)
About The Author
is is been the worst campaign ever… not even the concept of selling product that doesn’t look good, come on an unclean fridge with a brain I bet Mr. KENMORE brand wont like to see his products this way… that hand with very low digital retouch won’t sell those rings ever… not even for Halloween costume. the theme could be ok. but the approach was definitely the worst and the execution just kill it the graphics are very poor.
We here at the Zombie Rights Campaign are still waiting on an ad campaign that targets the Differently Animated with taste and class, rather than pandering and insults like Sears.
Granted, we’ll probably be waiting a while.
I’m often to running a blog and i really appreciate your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your web site and hold checking for brand new information.