It's worse than you think

[elfs]

You've probably heard recently the big row over Wal-Mart removing certain literature like FHM, Stuff, Maxim, and other "men's" magazines that feature semi-naked women with huge boobs and sultry eyes on their covers. Most of the press has concentrated on Wal-Mart's assertion that they're trying to make themselves a "family friendly place to shop." What you don't know is why Wal-Mart is seeking this family-friendly perception.

Kingdom Ventures is a venture capital company dedicated to the growth and success of evangelical Christian church-based organizations. Their most successful project is the Christian Merchants Association,, a synergistic advertising campaign in which merchants get special advertising and marketing access to churches and churchgoers, and in return the churches get up to 15% of the money their flock spend at these merchants. (I suspect the "up to" is misleading; it's probably 1-2% in most cases.)

You've probably made the connection between those two paragraphs. Wal-Mart is seeking approval to join the Christian Merchants Association. Not only does this give Wal-Mart an advertising vector with high consumer pre-approval ratings, but it also gives Wal-Mart an additional outlet for their wares: the Kingdom Catalog, a "private label, direct mail catalog" distributed only to churchgoers whose churches participate in the CMA.

What you may not know, but what is of interest to those of us in the Seattle area (as well as others), is that another Seattle institution is currently seeking to join the CMA as well. According to this press release from Kingdom Ventures, Costco has also recently been certified as "A Christian merchant."

I'm not about to suggest that anyone modify their buying habits. But knowing about this little detail-- deftly and quietly kept away from the eyes of the non-Evangelical community-- is important.

Comments

They can't get their facts straight

[omahas.livejournal.com]

If you read the article, you find that they claim that 92% of Americans identify as Christian. I don't know where they get their statistics, but the statistics that I've looked at from here says 76.5%, which is around where I thought it was.

Re: They can't get their facts straight

[jenk]

...minus those who self-identify as Christian but don't go to a church (since their company targets churches who are fund-raising)

...minus those churches who don't identify as evangelical (since their company targets "Evangelicals")