Crayola To Girl: You're NOT a drawing contest winner after all

[matcom]

<snip>

Justina Hecker's artwork submission to Crayola's Dream-Makers exhibition turned into a nightmare for the 9-year-old and her family.

Earlier this month the Heckers received a letter saying the third-grader's picture was chosen from thousands of entries to be on display at the State Theatre Center for the Arts.

The Wisconsin family immediately hopped on the Internet and started planning for a trip to Easton this summer.

A few days later Justina's mom, Laura Hecker, got a call from Crayola manufacturer Binney & Smith letting her know her daughter was one of 91 students erroneously sent letters of congratulations.

In fact, Justina's artwork was not recognized among thousands of entries.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1085562312253240.xml

[Submariner]

1. That's just plain mean to do that

to her. I remember when Sister Perpetual Agony rejected my crayon drawing of Jesus nailed to the cross because I colored too much blood into the picture. I was crushed....

[matcom]

2. 'Sister Perpetual Agony'

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[beyurslf]

3. They should give honorary mentions to all of those poor kids...

[davidinalameda]

4. sue them!

I would want a lifetime supply of crayons

[BlueJazz]

5. You forgot to mention that to make up for their mistake

...Crayola has sent every person who received an erroneous message,
a coupon worth 25 cents good toward a jumbo size box of Crayola
brand Crayons. (256 count)

Justina Hecker was overjoyed and praise Crayola for "Doing the Right Thing" :)

[candy]

6. The poor little girl---

I have a grandaughter that age and if it happened her,she would be devastated.

[slackmaster]

7. How hard could have been to display 91 additional works?

This is just plain ugly corporate behavior.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

8. Does Binney & Smith endorse the TORMENTING OF CHILDREN???

Obviously Binney & Smith does endorse this policy!

:puke:

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Sounds like a rather self-indulgent parent

People make mistakes - no sense going ballistic on it.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This just couldn't be. This is a child's life," the mother said in a phone interview Tuesday. "You just shattered her life."

"Doesn't someone proofread before they mail this out? Don't these people have children?" Laura Hecker said.

Jeez, lady - if you didn't have such a bad attitude, your child would be dealing with it better. "Shattered her life" - cripes. For a parent to say "you shattered her life" the kid is gonna hear that and think, "Oh, this is worse than I thought!"

Lady, calm down, and help your daughter deal with the rejection (and the stupidity of Crayola for not realing with it at all well) without the extreme me-first invective. Crayola apologized - there's a lesson you can offer your daughter right there, about apology and that while the company made an error, it apologized, and offered a gift. (though see below that I think they should have done more, but an apology and should be sufficient).


I'm sure that child was crushed - I would have been - and Crayola should have done the right thing and showed the artwork. They're young kids, so showing artwork without merit really isn't going to make a difference, and makes everybody happy, and - if we want to get totally pragmatic about it - it brings another 91 families into Easton for a weekend paying for hotels and food and etc., and will make those 91 families dedicated Crayola buyers because they'd know that's a company they can trust.

Stupid Crayola - bad move. But at least they DID apologize - what more can you expect from a mistake?

And calm down, ma, and help your child in a realistic way. Child's gonna grow up thinking that every time someone makes a mistake, or does something against her, that she should feel crushed and utterly destroyed, and that she deserves HUGE restitution, and blah blah blah.

[kmla]

10. Rabrrrrr, stop speaking like you have common sense and decency...

It might catch on. Before you know it, people would actually start to think before they spoke. What would that lead to? We might then hear thoughtful and intelligent personal interaction. Then where would we be? Civility would break out everywhere.

It would be madness and mayhem, I tell ya.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Yeah, we don't want that, do we?

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

No more self-indulgent whiny behavior. How could we go on as a society? As a species?