Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Me K'amcha Yisroel?

The story: The camp OM's kids attend took a trip on July 11 to the local 7/11. Why? Because that's the day 7/11 distributes free slurpees. Money quote
...the entire camp piled into buses to head over to the local 7-11 store, at which point every single camper in the camp lined up to receive their free Slurpee.
Zounds, right? Or ye freaking Gods, if you prefer.

PS: I don't think the 7/11 corporation cares. They want to give away free Slurpees - that's the point of the promotion, and they shouldn't mind if 200 kids come at once, or one at a time. The trouble is how it looks to employees and other customers. Those who don't appreciate the strategy behind the give-away, just see a crowd of cheap, grabby Jews.

And the experience, I'm afraid, teaches the kids to view themselves (or at least the camp administrators) as cheap, grabby Jews, too. They know the camp is getting away with a low-cost outing, and the kids probably aren't sophisticated enough to understand that the trip for free Slurpees is exactly what 7/11 wants. In their little heads, they think they are getting away with something -- and with the grown-ups' blessing, besides.

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