Brand Offers Inclusive Santa Training to Bring
More Diversity to the Tradition
Old Navy is re-imagining the holiday season, making room for all
the celebrations with its inclusive Happy ALL-idays campaign. The
brand is inspiring customers to turn-around old holiday stereotypes
and turn-up the cheer through storytelling and activations that
honor all the traditions and festive ways people close out the
year.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211109005531/en/
Old Navy Celebrates Inclusivity this
Holiday Season with ALL-idays Campaign (Photo: Business Wire)
Inclusive Santa Activation
In honor of the ALL-idays, Old Navy is inviting ALL the Santas
to participate, opening the tradition to anyone who is interested
in spreading holiday joy. The brand’s inclusive training course
encourages participation from a broad array of backgrounds,
ethnicities and cultural heritages to offer more representation in
the role of Santa.
Diversity is a current challenge in the Santa industry. Less
than 5% of all professional Santas in the U.S. identify as people
of color1, while almost half of children under the age of 15 in the
U.S. identify as non-white2. Last year, Old Navy introduced its
skin-tone Santa prints, depicting Santa in three different skin
tones across styles for the family. This year, the brand hopes to
extend that concept from product to the real world.
Old Navy aims to make Santa more representative of modern-day
culture through its Santa BOOTcamp, encouraging any person who
wants to play the role of Santa this year - be it professionally,
in their community, or for their family - to sign up for the
inclusive training program.
Santa BOOTcamp
In the 30-minute virtual course, trainees will learn the
fundamentals of becoming Santa, including how to respond to kids’
frequently asked Santa questions, key phrases in both sign language
and Spanish, and tactics for how to take the perfect photo. Old
Navy partnered with veteran Santa Timothy Connaghan, founder of
School4Santas and owner of one of the largest Santa booking
agencies in the U.S.3, to develop the immersive course. Casted
alongside Tim are fellow professional Santas and School4Santa
graduates: Dion Sinclair, known as Santa Dee or “The Real Black
Santa,” Bob Torres, a seasoned bilingual Santa who has been in the
industry for 38 years, and Brian Butler, known as “Soulful Santa,”
to help lead instruction.
“It’s not the red suit or white hair and beard that create
holiday magic, it’s what you have in your heart,” said Timothy
Connaghan. “A good Santa should spread joy and exude the holiday
spirit, regardless of their appearance.”
Individuals can visit www.OldNavySantaBootcamp.com to register
for the free, inclusive training program, which will take place
online on Friday, November 19. Old Navy will also be casting a
range of diverse Santas to appear in its flagship stores in New
York City (Herald Square), San Francisco (Market Street) and
Chicago (State Street) for socially-distant photo moments on
Saturday, December 4.
ALL-idays Content
Old Navy is celebrating all different types of families and
traditions in this year’s ALL-idays campaign through an explosion
of color and inclusion.
- In two television spots and a series of digital extensions
starring award-winning actress and singer Keke Palmer, the brand
playfully demonstrates that there’s no one way to celebrate the
holidays. Keke is featured alongside a diverse cast of families
participating in an array of holiday traditions, from building
festive snowpeople to breaking a piñata. In one digital short,
Palmer takes a pass at the inclusive Santa training, trying to
master her HOHOHO and chimney entry.
- In a series of social takeovers, Old Navy will pass the mic to
a diverse group of influencers to share their unique holiday
traditions - from Friendsgiving to challah recipes to Elf on the
Shelf. The brand will showcase one influencer a week, while
encouraging followers to share how they ALL-iday using the
#happyALLidays hashtag, beginning November 16 through December 21
on its @oldnavy Instagram handle.
“We have reimagined the holidays this year to celebrate the
diversity of our customers through our ALL-iday campaign,” says
Jamie Gersch, SVP and CMO at Old Navy. “Inclusivity is core to our
Old Navy values and is represented in the products we create, how
they come to life, the people we work with and how we run our
business. We can’t wait to see and share our customers' ALL-iday
celebrations.”
Skin Tone Santa Jingle Jammies
Old Navy’s famous Jingle Jammies inspired the brand’s inclusive
Santa training program. Last year Old Navy launched its hero Santa
print pajamas in partnership with Gap Inc.'s Color Proud Council,
an employee group that is part of the company’s Equality &
Belonging team. The expanded offering of Santa Jingle Jammies,
available in three different skin tones, were an immediate hit with
customers and showed more diversity in the depiction of Santa Claus
across styles for the entire family.
This year, Old Navy continues to deliver on its values of
inclusivity and belonging by bringing back the beloved Santa Jingle
Jammies, alongside additional inclusive patterns and color
combinations like menorah prints and rainbow stripes, to serve all
family needs and traditions during the fall and winter seasons.
Shoppers can view the Jingle Jammie collection for the entire
family, priced between $10.00 - $39.99 now at www.oldnavy.com and
in Old Navy stores.
This Way ONward
Old Navy is proud to celebrate the ALL-iday season with its
annual tradition of investing in the next generation through the
brand’s This Way ONward program. This season Old Navy is giving it
a rocket boost with a $1 million donation through the Imagine
Mission Fund.4
The program provides young people with the skills they need to
succeed in the workforce, changing lives with first jobs. In
addition to providing career development and mentorship
opportunities, the program invests in youth by assisting with
transportation, housing and clothing allowance to help narrow the
opportunity gap.
Through This Way ONward, Old Navy has provided jobs and
mentoring to over 10,000 diverse youth (90% of participants
self-identify as a person of color), and is on track to hit its
goal to provide 20,000 jobs by 2025. Learn more about This Way
ONward and Old Navy’s cause platform, The Imagine Mission, at
www.oldnavy.com/imagine.
About Old Navy
Old Navy is a global apparel and accessories brand that makes
current American essentials accessible to every family. Originated
in 1994, the brand celebrates the democracy of style through
on-trend, playfully optimistic, affordable and high-quality
products. A division of San Francisco-based Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS),
Old Navy brings a fun, energizing shopping environment to its
customers in more than 1,200 stores around the world. For more
information, please visit www.oldnavy.com.
1https://www.tampabay.com/data/2017/12/20/the-2017-santa-census/
2https://www.brookings.edu/research/less-than-half-of-us-children-under-15-are-white-census-shows/
3https://www.nationalsanta.com/national-santas-biography/
4Imagine Mission Fund is an established
fund at T.Rowe Price DAF, a 501c3.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211109005531/en/
Alison Brod Marketing + Communications oldnavy@abmc-us.com
Dava Huber dava_huber@gap.com
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