Ford Motor Company is regressing toward the philosophy of its founder.
In a nutshell, the rabid homophobes at the American Family Association threatened Ford with a boycott earlier this year because they were advertising in the gay press. Suddenly in June the AFA called off their threatened boycott because local Ford dealers had contacted the national Ford office and, apparently, suggested Ford might be amenable to working out a deal. Now we find out that Ford is pulling its gay ads and that Ford even tells the Advocate that the AFA’s press release claiming credit for this entire thing is accurate.
UPDATE: The classic response from the folks you contact will often be “we’re the wrong people to contact.” They’re not the wrong people to contact, though they may think they are. These are all people in Ford’s marketing division, and Ford needs to hear from everyone in their marketing division that their very bad marketing decision is causing a firestorm of protest. We’ll move on to other employees tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. And each day we’ll probably hear the same thing – Paramount and Microsoft both said this too us all the time, we’re the wrong people. Well, find the right people and tell them that this is a big problem.
For this afternoon’s action, please contact the same Ford marketing people by phone this time. They’re apparently now blocking their email accounts, which means you got to them. Now phone them.
Steve Lyons: 313-845-1621
Mae Smith: 313-845-1510
Terri Cavanaugh: 313-845-0580These people are all in Ford’s marketing department – some are execs, others are staff. We are intentionally targeting both high-level and lower-level staff in the marketing department so that our message is heard throughout the entire company, not just by one vice president.
As always, be nice but firm, and don’t threaten them or do anything else obnoxious. Leave that kind of behavior to America’s Taliban. But do make clear that their company is toast.
Background on what Ford has done. Amongst other things, you might want to ask Ford if they’d pull their ads from African-American or Jewish publications if the Klan objected?