Ford pulls LR/Jag GLBT support due to American Family threat

[Ghoulish Delight]

While I do find negotiating with the AFA distasteful, I have to agree with iSm and Alex in one regard. I don't see gay-specific advertising as a hugely supportive element for the gay community. I think the community is better served by things like an ad for a TLC show I saw recently. It was one of their myriad reality shows about come aspect of couple-dom or other. Not about gay couples specifically, but the ad lead off with a clip from an episode about a gay couple, and went on to show a few other couples (I believe the rest were straight couples, but I'm not positive). It wasn't "Hey gays, here's a gay show about gay people. If you like gayity, watch our gay show!" It was, "Here's a show about couples. Here's a couple, here's another couple, and here's another couple."

Yes, supporting gays is hardly a huge leap for TLC, but I was particularly struck by that ad. To me, that's a MUCH bigger step for the gay community. Mainstream exposure, in no way differentiated in presentation from anybody else.

I think an important question to ask Ford is, why don't I see those nice looking couples in the above ad in the Sunday Times? As I see it, they were doing a disservice to the community long before this alleged agreement. Sure they came out with some good, "we don't discriminate" statments, and yet they sure were keen to keep those photos of gay couples enjoying their product away from the general public where, thank the marketing gods, only gay people would see them.