A New Low for TRF- Tacky "Name Your Baby" Marketing Ploy

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

I had a hard enough time with being called "Drew" let alone "TexRen" or "Moon Unit"...

[KeeperoftheBar]

Don't forget "Dweezle"

I guess I am about the only one who took the whole thing as a joke.  Kind of like the Dominos Pizza commercial where the guy is going to change his kid's name to "$7 Pickup Deal" (or something like that).

Course, I used to know two sisters, Alice & Sally Broken Face.  And a friend named Eddie Running Rabbit.
The joys of going up in Montana on an Indian Reservation...

[JimsDana]

Know a woman named Pashama! Spelled Pajamas!

[Glaodian]

I kinda treated this as a joke as well.  But if someone loves the TxRenFest enough to name their child after it for lifetime tickets because they love this faire so much, then there is your passion.  It is their right to do so.  And everyone has the right to their own opinion about it.  Keep it honest and clean.  Just don't flame the entire company or those that like this.  Also, flaming entire towns like Cut n Shoot or anyone who lives in the country is not the way to go either.  It may make one feel better about themselves, but really only makes a person look more and more like an idiot.  I live in the back woods of southeast Texas, AND I have all of my teeth.  Imagine that.    

But in an instance like this, majority wins.  And if the majority of folks visiting the faire are into this kinda of marketing, then that is the way TRF will head.  TRF is in business to make money.  As much money as they can.  It is sad, but true.  The only way to change TRF to head in the direction that us rennies want it to go, is to become the majority.  Get more folks interested in enjoying renfaires like we do, and TRF will change to what we would like to see it as.

Boycotting TRF will not hurt them one bit either.  All that would do is hurt ourselves and our friends that we have made out at TRF over the years.

[JimsDana]

Glaodian:I understand, this is not a personal attack on me. That said my nephew & his lady love (both of whom I love dearly) will be naming their son (due in Sept.) After my father and the truck that he loved!
Diesel Oren (Oran)!

[Glaodian]

Glaodian:I understand, this is not a personal attack on me. That said my nephew & his lady love (both of whom I love dearly) will be naming their son (due in Sept.) After my father and the truck that he loved!
Diesel Oren (Oran)!

Grats on the upcoming new addition to the family.

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

Last time i checked, this was still a free country.  If someone wants to burden their child like that, so be it.  They could call them Sue if they want a boy to grow up tough... 

[Breandan]

As I have said, it's their right as an organization to do this, and its mine as a customer to walk away in disgust and spend my money elsewhere. Realistically, TRF has been on the decline in spirit, albeit not in numbers, for years. It's lost its soul along the way in the eyes of many of us who have been going or working there for 20+ years. Will they continue to bring in big numbers? Sure, for a while. Will my taking my money elsewhere so much as dent George's pocketbook? Absolutely not. I, however, believe in concepts like integrity, and will not support an organization that has devolved to such tawdry tactics to gin up buzz as to court the more debase elements of society who would bugger their children over for a freebie.

Names are  V E R Y  important to my culture, they have power and carry weight. I have gotten into heated arguments with my wife over what to name our children more than once because we are extremely passionate about such things, and want those names to have meaning. My name wasn't chosen flippantly, neither were any of my siblings or our children. My wife's was, and it has irritated her and been a problem for her entire life. So, we both know the value of naming, me from being part of a multi-millennia-old tradition and her from negative experience created by a mother who stepped away from that tradition. I get the fact that we're not American culturally, only nationality-wise, and so we view American society from the outside and thus have to understand that it does not share the same values. This is a fact I get reminded of daily, trust me. However, even to the Americans this is not something normally taken lightly.

Nor is the cop-out reply of "well, they can always get it changed later" valid. One of the comments I made that was removed detailed the long, drawn-out and potentially expensive procedures required to do a legal name change for a minor in Texas- and I didn't even point out how MUCH more expensive and difficult it is to do as an adult, if the parents refuse to do so to keep those freebies coming- and how it can cause significant difficulties later in life. If that child ever went for TS-SCI clearance (and yes, I know that is unlikely, but it is still a potential), ANY form of name change can complicate the hell out of the process. I speak from experience of having had my surname changed, dropping my father's and taking my mother's maiden name when I was younger. It caused a lot of issues for me for background checks for law enforcement jobs, for my security clearance, and military enlistment. These are things the potential "winners" of this contest and its promoters have not taken into consideration, because the former just want a "gimme! gimme! gimme!" freebie at any cost, and the latter wants to gin up marketing exposure at any cost. Might as well just pay someone to run around naked with TexRenFest.com painted on their backside.

Contests like this rank up there with getting a company logo tattooed on one's head or "tramp-stamp" (dear GODS do I hate that term) area, and other forms of permanent or semi-permanent humiliation of one's self or- worse- one's family for a handout. It is debase, disgusting, and I, frankly, have been more than a little shocked and disappointed at the people who consider this a good idea or find it amusing. I have often been accused of seeing better in people than is actually there, and I guess this is one of those cases. I guess I expected them to take the sacredness of naming one's offspring, the very legacy we leave in this world when we are long gone to dust, at least half as seriously as I do. I do not see this as a joke, though I can plainly see the marketing folks at TRF sure as hell didn't take it seriously, nor do I take it lightly. Again, as I keep saying, it is their right to do this, and mine to walk away in utter disgust.

[Laird Fraser of Lovatt]

I think I'll be heading back to my thread and stay there since no one here seems to have a sense of humor.


*I believe i know the cost of this "free country" by the chunks of metal i still carry in my back and legs... and by being the only fat kid, in my whole school district, with the name "Drew" while growing up... or, when i reached a certain size, my mother stopped using her hand to slap me and started using a night stick.  Luckily i had already started training in Aikido so i knew how to take a blow*

[Morrigan]

So... it looks like the primary negative feedback removed was that from people who backed up their negative opinions with actual facts.

Derned pesky facts.

[Glaodian]

I think I'll be heading back to my thread and stay there since no one here seems to have a sense of humor.


*I believe i know the cost of this "free country" by the chunks of metal i still carry in my back and legs... and by being the only fat kid, in my whole school district, with the name "Drew" while growing up... or, when i reached a certain size, my mother stopped using her hand to slap me and started using a night stick.  Luckily i had already started training in Aikido so i knew how to take a blow*

I have a sense of humor.  And also I bet that metal in your back and leg plays hell for ya at airports.     Thanks for carrying that metal around for us. 

[MorganaLightskirt]

Speaking as one with one of "those" names, I'm 49 years old and people still find it amusing to "Polly Wolly", "Polly-want-a-cracker", "Polly this, Polly-that".  What gripes me, is that they think they're being funny.  Honestly, I've heard them all.  Not one "funny" name is actualy funny. 

[Jon Hanslow]

Good lord this is shine. What were they thinking? I mean... Really?!?! I hadn't been to TRF in quite a few years, but this makes me think twice about going back... Going down the same road as MNRF

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[The Rabbi]

*Rant Warning for those easily offended*

It's a Free Country
I have heard that many times as an excuse to look the other way when someone slaps a toddler's face in Walmart; the toddler in the grocery store is told she is stupid when she can't keep up with her harassed mother, the girl who acts out in class comes to school with bruises on her body 'because she is a difficult child', the too-thin boy steals food from the school lunchroom because he was sent to bed with no supper when he got on his mother's nerves.
Too many people treat their children as possessions; and the witnesses who see abuse everyday look the other way because to intervene would cause them some embarrassment or discomfort. Given what we now know of child psychology, giving a child such a name and making him a target for bullying, is nothing less than child abuse.

Bad Baby names have long lasting effects on children.
Studies showed that children with odd names got worse grades and were less popular than other classmates in elementary school. In college they were more likely to flunk out or become "psychoneurotic." Prospective bosses spurned their résumés. They were overrepresented among emotionally disturbed children and psychiatric patients.
"The Psychological impact of names."R.L. Zweigenhaft, K.N. Hayes, C.H. Haagen. Journal of Social Psychology, 1980.

**End Rant**

Well said taking no action is still an action with consequences. If a child needs a butt warming so be it warm the butt or slap the hand if they need it but slapping the face might result in getting your own butt warming if I see it. yes this is a free country and like Laird Fraser I too have paid my price. We did this so people from Westboro Baptist Church can picket our Soldier funerals or kids can be raised racist and bigoted but we also did this to protect the positive things around us as well. Personally I find TRFs competition to be beyond tacky and think if they had meant it as a joke they should have worded it in such a way. While boycotting TRF may have little affect on them if enough do so it can get their attention. That same freedom gives us the right to choose where we spend our hard earned money and to create blockades to back down protesters. I can not even begin to fathom the concept of this contest as I thought it was to screwy to even be worth considering as real. Breandan I agree with your sentiment Integrity, Honor, and Respect are too often lost in todays society and I would much rather take action then to stand idly by and suffer the consequences.

[Chris B]

A group of people boycotting the fair will not make a dent in the fair, but a ploy like this on the marketing side of the business approved by a new GM that really only seems to have business experience in marketing is another sign that he may not be as competent in that role as one would be led to believe.  After talking to him, I personally feel he is not a very strong manager, businessman, or leader and poor decisions usually are followed by other poor decisions if you do not learn from your mistakes.  

Poor treatment of performers, dishonesty in dealing with employees/contracts, lack of respect or loyalty for anyone working for you, increasing fees charged to food vendors per ticket without any real potential to offest this with higher revenue to those same vendors, rapidly expanding an infrastructure by either assuming more debt, making capital calls or eating up your retained earnings the years after a major fraud is discovered in the front office, lengthening hours of operation (which will increase expenses for all involved with little potential of increasing revenue), forcing employees to work longer hours without further compensation due to those same longer hours, increasing potential risk for liability/injury to patrons and workers from traffic accidents due to increased fatigue, intoxication, etc. (also due to longer hours of operation) are some examples of decisions that could be questioned and seen as poor.  Remember, there is a lot more to running a company than marketing and seeking sponsors for your festival.

Maybe Breandan or any one person on here starting to voice dissent may not make a dent in TRF, but a combination of poor decisions combined with that negative publicity certainly can.  After the way we were treated these last few months, I have certainly spoken to my family, friends and business contacts when asked about my experiences and opinions of TRF, and the consensus from 100% of those conversations is that they have little respect for anything dealing with the managers and businessmen running TRF.  If we can learn anything from business in the past decade, it is even the largest companies fail when they lose tone at the top, have poor internal control, and lack enough business knowledge to run their organization.  I work in business litigation and see cases of this every day of my career.  I know many people have experienced censorship and backlash, either after leaving employment with TRF or after voicing concerns over various issues, but it is their problem, not ours.  Eventually, poor business decisions catch up to you, and you have to eventually pay the piper.