Simon stands down: How a mall display bred cyber-activists

A young, expectant mother from West Babylon, a graduate student from Hicksville and their cyber-allies challenged the nation's largest mall operator this month to return to its traditional Christmas display at Roosevelt Field mall -- and it was no contest.

Social media protests mounted soon after Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group installed in six of its U.S. malls -- including Roosevelt Field -- a new, nontraditional Christmas tableau in which Santa sat surrounded by stylized glaciers rather than Christmas trees. Within three days, Simon, which had $4.9 billion in revenue last year, yanked the new decorations in favor of a far more traditional scene.

The episode displayed how the power of social media -- and the savvy of cyber activists -- can influence the decision-making of a major company, through the same tools that companies use to entice consumers in new and innovative ways.

Simon introduced the new displays about a week ago, and they didn't sit well with Jessica Juzwa-Rudin, 25, who is expecting her first child in February, and who has enjoyed going to see the Christmas display at the mall since her own childhood.

About 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, she saw a picture of the Roosevelt Field glacier display on her Facebook newsfeed. By 1 a.m. Saturday, she had started an online petition through the activist website Change.org to "Bring back Christmas at Simon Malls."

Within 24 hours, her petition had racked up more than 2,000 signatures.

Hicksville resident Brittany Hyde, 23, a masters student in literacy education at St. John's University, started an online petition only a few hours later, around 3 a.m., calling for a boycott of the mall. By Saturday evening, she had nearly 1,000 supporters.

"I never expected the public to get involved as they did," she said Nov. 10.

The petitioners' timing coincided with a spike in online searches for the terms "Christmas," "tree" and "Roosevelt Field mall" in the New York metropolitan area, according to Google Trends, an indicator of online sentiment.

At least six Change.org petitions against the new Christmas decorations were started by Long Islanders within two days. Other cyber-activists were busy elsewhere in the country: A petition to alter a similar Simon display in Charlotte, North Carolina, received more than 25,000 signatures.

The result: Roosevelt Field's glacier holiday display melted away in a weekend.

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The mall now features a new tableau with seven Christmas trees, six outsized red presents with gold bows, two reindeer and, of course, Santa. The futuristic glacier displays met a similar fate in the five other malls.

"I never really intended to take away the glacier structure," Juzwa-Rudin said. "But I'm very happy that they've heard the message of all these people."

Business and brand experts said cyber-activism is no longer the exception and that companies are engaged in a continuous dialogue with consumers, like it or not.

"Communities can form quickly in any cause du jour," said John Talbott, associate director of the Center for Education and Research in Retail at Indiana University. "In the Internet of today, everybody's got a voice. You can't run away from it."

Simon Property isn't the only company getting heat for changing its Christmas decorations this month. When Starbucks introduced plain red holiday cups without Christmas ornaments, snowflakes or snowmen, an online firestorm erupted.

Google Trends reported a spike in interest from Nov. 5 to 11 when more than 500,000 searches related to the Seattle coffee company's holiday cups were entered into the search engine.

Starbucks has given no indication it would modify its cups. A Starbucks spokeswoman said that the company has served holiday beverages in red cups of various designs for 18 years, but the company's culture of inclusion embraces "customers from all backgrounds and religions."

Marshal Cohen, retail industry analyst at the NPD Group in Port Washington, said that retailers face religious and political hurdles in navigating the holiday season.

He acknowledged that the commercialization of Christmas has shifted the focus away from the holiday's religious significance.But acknowledging that significance, and excluding non-Christian -- or minority Christian -- religious or cultural groups poses the risk that they will press for recognition of their traditions, such as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Three Kings Day, an important celebration to some Latino Catholics and other Christians.

"Retailers are trying to find a formula that works" for the holiday season, he said.

Talbott agreed that deciding what kind of overt religious symbols to display can put businesses in a precarious position.

"Simon Malls has Muslims, Catholics, Jews, atheists and agnostics . . . and they're all welcome to come," he said.

"It's hard for a company to know which side to come down on. There's no winning here," he said. "This is something keeping [Simon Property Group CEO] David Simon up at night."

On a visit to Roosevelt Field mall on Thursday, Haroon Anwar, 42, a Muslim who lives in Douglaston, said that while he thinks the updated Christmas display is "beautiful," he would also welcome displays that honor other traditions.

"We live in the United States so I think it's fair to say that if we present other religions that would be fine too," he said. "But then again, Christmas is about Christmas."

Roosevelt Field said on its Facebook page during the protests that its new display was not intended to be devoid of Christmas symbols. "We aren't trying to make any sort of political statement," the mall operator said on its Facebook page on Nov. 7. "Rather we wanted to try something modern and interesting to celebrate Christmas."

Some cyber-activists believe that their religious beliefs are being disparaged, citing an earlier statement from Simon's SouthPark Mall in Charlotte that the new display would "bring the Charlotte community together in a way that hasn't been done before."

That statement by Simon "appeared to very clearly be an effort to censor Christmas, to avoid potentially offending those that find any symbols of Christmas offensive," said Andrew Campanelli, 54, principal at Merrick-based law firm Campanelli & Associates, who posted a comment online about his dissatisfaction. "This year I will not shop at the mall nor will any of my immediate or extended family," Campanelli said.

East Meadow resident Kevin McElligott, 52, who signed one of the Long Island petitions, said, "Everything has been homogenized to a point that if somebody doesn't like it, then nobody can celebrate it."

After talking to his pastor, McElligott said he found himself frustrated that big retailers "whitewash" cultural or religious expression.

"Whatever you may be, it's OK to celebrate who you are," McElligott said.

In her Change.org petition, Juzwa-Rudin said, in part, that Simon "decided to use these virtual pods (glaciers) for photos with Santa instead of the traditional Christmas tree & decor to avoid offending anyone. It is our mission to let them know how many people they are offending with these PODS and taking the joy and magical spirit away from Christmas! #protestthepod"

Juzwa-Rudin doesn't come across as an angry cyber-activist. She said she did not believe the glacier theme disparaged Christian beliefs. "I started the petition because I knew how upset people would be when they didn't see the traditional Christmas decorations," she said. To her, the glacier tableau lacked the "emotion and ambience" of past displays, and she missed the sight of the mall's traditional Christmas trees.

She didn't promote a boycott in her petition. "I never intended on boycotting because I know the stores are owned by separate people," she said.

Hyde, on the other hand, said she saw boycotting as a way to send "a stern and strong message" to Simon.

Described by her mother as the "family elf" for her passion for the holiday season, Hyde said she was saddened to see what Roosevelt Field had done with its Christmas display. "It's really just not a great decision to try to minimize the Christmas holiday and try to capitalize off it at the same time," she said.

Now, with her message clearly heard, she said she has no plans to withhold her business this shopping season. "As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness," Hyde said. "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Even companies."

Experts said Simon Property's rapid response to the social media avalanche showed it understood what was at stake.

The mall owner did the right thing by listening, said David Chauvin, partner at Great Neck-based public relations firm Zimmerman-Edelson.

"Customers can become advocates or they can become detractors," he said, which makes actively listening to the conversation imperative for long-term brand building.

NPD Group's Cohen said that holiday culture uprisings will likely become a recurring feature of the season.

"Once you let an organization or a group of people know they're heard, they get even louder," he said. "This won't go away."

Maura McDermott contributed to this story