AFA Ends Gap Boycott

The American Family Association has ended its boycott of Gap, Inc. after the company aired a "Merry Christmas" commercial over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The AFA began the boycott to force Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Old Navy and Banana Repubic, to use "Christmas" in their advertising campaigns this holiday season.

AFA President Tim Wildmon said, "We're in this fight because we are disturbed by the increasing secularization of our culture in general and Christmas in particular. We're gratified that Gap has responded to the thousands of phone calls, emails and petitions from Americans who share our concerns."

The AFA is now turning its attention to other retailers.

Randy Sharp, AFA's director of special projects, said AFA now is targeting Best Buy and Dick's Sporting Goods.

"We're urging them to include 'Christmas' in their seasonal advertising. We'll see what kind of response we get, and decide on the next step from there," he said. "Consumers have lots of options when it comes to buying electronics and sporting goods, and we think they're going to want to buy them from merchants who show respect for Christmas in their appeal to shoppers."

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over 2.5 million online supporters.

The group maintains a "naughty" and "nice" list of retailers here.