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Lowe’s, Bank of America, and Others Pull Ads from Muslim Reality TV Show After Pressure
ThinkProgress / News Analysis
Published: Sunday 11 December 2011
The Florida Family Association: “Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.”
The TLC reality TV show All-American Muslim chronicles the lives of a group of Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan. The show has been well-received for its fair and realistic portrayal of the Muslim American experience in the United States. Watch a trailer for the show here.
But a reality TV show that lets Americans relate to the lives of Muslims in the United States is an offensive idea to those who want to demonize Islam. The Florida Family Association (FFA) launched a campaign earlier this year to get companies to pull their advertising from the program. FFA claims that 65 of the 67 companies targeted have done this, including home improvement giant Lowe’s and megabank Bank of America:
The Florida Family Association, a Tampa Bay group, has led a campaign urging companies to pull ads on “All-American Muslim.” The FFA contends that 65 of 67 companies it has targeted have pulled their ads, including Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart.
One of the companies that FFA claims pulled commercials, Amway, told the Washington Post that such reports were “misleading” and that it has done no such thing. Lowe’s told the paper that it did indeed pull advertising. “We understand the program raised concerns, complaints, or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show,” said Katie Cody, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s.
The Islamic Circle of North America is urging concerned citizens to call Lowe’s and protest their withdrawal of advertising: “We urge the American Muslim community and our friends, family, neighbors and all people of conscience to call Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock at (704) 758-2084 or Executive Support Mr. Andrew Kilby at (866) 900-4650 and respectfully complain about this decision.”
Update: Lowe’s issued this statement on Facebook confirming that it pulled the ads: “Lowe’s has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible. Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program.”
Update: The Florida Family Association, the right-wing group responsible for manufacturing a campaign against All-American Muslim, says this about the show:
Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.
Originally published on ThinkProgress
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190 comments on "Lowe’s, Bank of America, and Others Pull Ads from Muslim Reality TV Show After Pressure"
December 24, 2011 10:50am
Hear! Hear! and Amen!
As an agnostic/atheist it is amusing to witness once again the ignorance of fanatic religious people.. (but especially jewish/christian/muslim fanatics against each other..)
What these people do not understand is that all three religions are based on same stories and at different times all three religions were hijacked by "some" religious fanatics to do the biggest atrocities..
You can easily spot the fanatics with following extreme beliefs:
- My flavor of religion is superior to the other flavors and is the "true path"
- I will end up in heaven if I follow my version of religion
- It is OK to bash the other flavors of religion (they are by definition incorrect)
- The other religions have way too many fanatics, while my version is the peaceful one, however (and this is the crucial part) : "IT IS OK TO FIGHT THE FANATICS OF OTHER RELIGIONS IN ORDER TO PROTECT MY WAY OF LIVING", AFTER ALL THIS IS REALLY SELF DEFENSE"
Just ask yourself the questions above, if you agree with all of the above, I have news for you : "YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OTHER FANATICS"
As an agnostic/atheist it is amusing to witness once again the ignorance of fanatic religious people.. (but especially jewish/christian/muslim fanatics against each other..)
What these people do not understand is that all three religions are based on same stories and at different times all three religions were hijacked by "some" religious fanatics to do the biggest atrocities..
You can easily spot the fanatics with following extreme beliefs:
- My flavor of religion is superior to the other flavors and is the "true path"
- I will end up in heaven if I follow my version of religion
- It is OK to bash the other flavors of religion (they are by definition incorrect)
- The other religions have way too many fanatics, while my version is the peaceful one, however (and this is the crucial part) : "IT IS OK TO FIGHT THE FANATICS OF OTHER RELIGIONS IN ORDER TO PROTECT MY WAY OF LIVING", AFTER ALL THIS IS REALLY SELF DEFENSE"
Just ask yourself the questions above, if you agree with all of the above, I have news for you : "YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OTHER FANATICS"
December 15, 2011 8:40pm
t
December 13, 2011 10:07am
How could we possibly penalize an entire nation of people world wide for the insanity of a few? This is abominable!!!! Lets not forget the atrocities that America and Americans alike have committed! Have a heart humanity - these are merely people just like YOU
December 24, 2011 11:07am
Hear! Hear! and AMEN! Couldn't have said it better myself. ;-)
December 15, 2011 8:41pm
b
December 12, 2011 10:09pm
Sorry American muslims you have done nothing to denounce the violence and aggression that your religion mandates. American companies do not support violence. Go Lowes and the 64 other companies that pulled their advertising. For all you other whiners, their action is called freedom of speech. If the muslims don't like it their are other countries that you are free to move back to.
December 13, 2011 7:10am
hey bobbridge is the lows in your town not offering a 2 for 1 sale on batteries???? if your too cheap to buy some for your vibrator we will gladly buy some for you .after all the muslims are known to be the most generous people in the world ""OUR RELIGION TELLS US TO BE THAT WAY""""the last thing this country needs is another DONKEYopening his big ugly hole and speak and pretend he knows what sharia is, go open a book and read you moron we dont need to be educated by a donkey i think we now our religion more than you donkey, or better yet go back to drinking your beer im sure it'll make you smarter
December 13, 2011 2:51am
I wrote a comment to you but it got lost. Your post in its whole is either naive or very incorrect on all issues. Islam is not an aggressive religion. But the fundamentalist of all religions are aggressive,and this is true for the "family associations" that promote ignorance and hate. As for your comment "american companies do not support violence"... oil companies with their mercenary armies who kill any who are against their actions, the wars for resources that make these companies rich. The American fruit company in central and South America and their militias, boy you don't read much do you. Also, your statement of telling American citizens to leave , how "christian" and loving is this...sounds very agressive to me. You are part of the problem, when you promote hate toward others based on ignorance.
December 12, 2011 9:53pm
As long as Islam promotes Sharia Law in this country American companies have a moral obligation to withdraw their support. Violence is not acceptable in this country.
February 07, 2012 3:15pm
excuse me? this country has "the" HIGHEST rate of violence and trust me, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Islam, a religion that DOES NOT promote violence. Look at U.S. history and understand it. The United States of America has committed unforgivable violence around the globe, in fact, also in countries where "violence is not acceptable". So it comes down to this, BOBBRIDGE - violence is not accepted ANYWHERE. And it is your moral obligation as well as all American companies to not be racist or prejudice or show hatred toward a group that is not WASP or whatever you claim and the way you do that is to continue to advertise as you would had the show been "All-American Christian".
December 13, 2011 2:57am
Islam does not promote Sharia Law, it is the fundamentalists." Violence is not acceptable in this country", I guess you don't watch television. I could guess how you feel about abortion clinics and the killing of their doctors or the beating up on those with different sexual orientation or those of color. Violence has been done to them all, and it has been done in the guise of christian values.
December 15, 2011 8:41pm
b
December 15, 2011 8:41pm
b
December 12, 2011 7:53pm
If Bank of America pulled the ads they are the BIGGEST hypocrites in the country. They are currently running an ad in which a Japanese American woman talks about how BoA was the only bank willing to do business with her family after the WWII interment period was over and her father was trying to rebuild his grocery business that was seized during the war. Holy hypocrite Batman.
December 12, 2011 8:01pm
Well, though it's not surprising, I wouldn't say Lowe's pulled it because of religious intolerance - they're just profit-driven and PR-wary. My guess is that Lowe's marketing dept. thought "hey, if this pull hits the news, we'll get a surge of support from rednecks". So, their marketing department advised a pull. As for the other sixty whatever, who knows. Probably mostly the same thing. I doubt they were scared of losing business (by keeping the commercials in), because until consumers are told of such things, they usually don't notice...
Now, if you want to talk about hardware companies, I try to shop at a local store. They are usually smaller, friendlier, and easier to depend on and negotiate with, and they need our business more than ever now, as they continue to struggle competing with the giants.
December 12, 2011 5:31pm
Excellent Lorna. Sounds exactly like the goals of our country's Christian Fundamentalists. Line for Line.
December 12, 2011 5:24pm
I was born and raised in that area of Michigan. It is always wonderful to see good homeowners and business people who take pride in their neighborhoods.I was taught freedom of religion here in America. What were you taught?
December 12, 2011 5:18pm
To think that the country is now being run by a radical Christian group in Florida is truely frightening. I am disappointed but not really surprised at this happening as our country is imploding. There is no respect for the Constitution. Everyone knows that money and greed are really the main factors in these bigoted decisions. I have already start to notify the companies that I've done business over the years that I will not be spending anymore money buying their products or services. Americans are Americans - one would think we were past all this fear mongering and bigotry.
December 12, 2011 5:13pm
I heard Native American say this to you, the other day!!You did not get out, though. US Citizens who are Muslims are here to stay and most of them have better education and jobs. US Constitution protects them as it does all its citizen.
December 12, 2011 5:11pm
Islamophobia plays well among a population that's in a very nasty, intolerant and pessimistic mood, and the intolerance and paranoia that many Americans are feeling towards Islam has been generated and nourished by the books, videos and TV shows which have been produced by the well-heeled "preachers" of the "Christian" Right.
Sad how the zealots in both religions have managed to obliterate whatever shreds of reason used to dominate the national consciousness.
December 12, 2011 4:53pm
Morocco was the FIRST country to recognize USA . You are poorly educated-so sad.
December 12, 2011 8:14pm
Our war with the Islamic pirates and slavers of the Barbary Coast was the very first war we engaged in after independence from England.
It seems that war has never ended. So be it.
Muslims are the worst propagandists because the reality of their abject stupidity and brutality speaks louder than Muslim lies.
December 12, 2011 4:25pm
The bottom line is that human free-will is the driving force behind all toxic actions taken against the rest of the Universe. Religion is not the problem--human behavior is the issue. No matter which dogmatic perspectives people may embrace, their co-creating free-will actions are the rubber-meeting-the-road impacts.
A tightly cintured dogma collar around a red-neck, is the same for all humanity. If it so chokes the persons free-will that they are compelled to contaminate, violate, and commit atrocities against the whole of the Universe, they are defiling and excreting (puking, peeing, pooping), into the Immaculate Parchment "diaper," of Unconditional Love.
December 12, 2011 1:26pm
Ugh, Jihad is a spiritual struggle. It's not an act of war against AMERICA. Get a brain, and read a book. This is absurd that people are fearful of a television show documenting religion in America. SO STUPID. First Disney, Then Heinz ketchup, now THIS?!
December 12, 2011 8:17pm
You're an idiot. Jihad is the pinnacle of the expression of surrender and love for Allah. Allah loves martyrs more than angels and the Jiin.
To die committing murder is the highest honor in Islam.
Perhaps you should leave your mommie's basement and read things other than comic books.
December 13, 2011 3:03am
Another fundamentalist birdbrain, oh sorry ,birdwell.
December 12, 2011 1:25pm
Ugh, Jihad is a spiritual struggle. It's not an act of war against AMERICA. Get a brain, and read a book. This is absurd that people are fearful of a television show documenting religion in America. SO STUPID. First Disney, Then Heinz ketchup, now THIS?!
December 12, 2011 12:42pm
GOOD, IT'A UP TO A COMPANY WEATHER THEY SPONSER ANYTHING THEY THOSE AND BLACKMAIL DOES NOT SET WELL AON AMERICAN EARS...
December 13, 2011 3:11am
What were you trying to say? Those companies were blackmailed to not sponsor that program...yes it seems that is true. It is not right to use religion as a weapon against other religions. It is time to take away all the tax exemptions given to the churches and their organizations, especially when they use their religion in nefarious ways.
December 12, 2011 11:13am
Dogmatism, such as that displayed in your rant NAMA, is poison, whether it is from a religious or non-religious source.What you're advocating is simple ignorant prejudice. And that's no more rational coming from an anti-religious point of view than from a religious one.
December 12, 2011 10:50am
Thank you, Nation of Change, for posting this article! I just called Mr. Niblock and told his secretary that his action encourages intolerance and that his decision will affect my decision of where NOT to shop.
December 12, 2011 10:42am
RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.RELIGION IS POISON.Suck it up and learn science, or die killing each other you nincompoops. Doesn't matter what religion it is - it's all MYTHOLOGY and you're an idiot to believe it.One more time!RELIGION IS POISON.
December 12, 2011 10:39am
Islamophobia is alive and well in the U.S. The AIPAC puppetstring pullers ensure it. You know, the ones who believe they are Chosen and the rest of the country are goyim. Cattle.
December 12, 2011 8:21pm
A "phobia" is an "irrational" fear of something not supported by reality.
There is no such thing as "Islamophobia." The inhuman barbarity if Islam is real. And, they are coming for you. Well, maybe not you because you seem to already have surrendered to the monsters.
December 13, 2011 3:17am
Its the "irrational fear"that is the driving force of those that spout the intolerance that you do, based on lies. This is Islamphobia, you poor misdirected individual.
December 12, 2011 10:24am
who cares this is America not Nazi Germany Americans will not bow to this DHIMMITUDE.CAIR HAMAS Linked Group backs Gender Segregation At Columbia University
Not now they won't but what happens when Muslims (more births, more citizens, etc.) become a significant force in American politics, get elected and pass legislation that is conducive to a Muslim Jihad? Under the right circumstances they could even get the United States constitution changed. It may not happen in my lifetime but over the course of the 21st century and beyond it could.
December 12, 2011 10:23am
It may come as a surprise to the weak-minded, self-absorbed followers of Fox News that this country was founded on tolerating all religions. Respect All or none is respected.
We will tell Lowe's and the others they are NOT acting like Americans.
December 12, 2011 8:24pm
Your statement is idiotic.
Americans will never "support" forced conversions, slavery, pedophelia, abuse of women and children or mass murder.
So, you are wrong. America was not founded on "tolerating all religions."
December 12, 2011 10:28am
Islam does not respect Any other religion
tell me who did the 9/11/Fort hood and Mumbai India Jihads?
December 12, 2011 9:04am
I am not a Muslim but I will be selling my Lowe's stock today. I was sad that I don't have a local Lowe's, now I don't care. I'm sure Lowe's & BofA will be losing lots of Muslim customers soon.
December 12, 2011 9:02am
I am not Muslim but I will be selling my Lowe's stock. Sad.
December 12, 2011 8:28am
Has everyone overlooked the concerted orchestrated campaigns in this country led by Muslim leaders to silence any and all criticism of Islam? Or the death threats issued by Muslims to critics? Or the shut down of lectures on campuses by the Muslim Students Association, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood? Or the murder of Theo van Gogh and subsequent death threats to his collaborator Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was forced into hiding and exile? Or the fact that ex Muslims are murdered as apostates according to Islamic law? Or the honor killings of young girls by their families for dating nonMuslims? Or the stated belief of Islam that democracy, freedom of speech and the practice of other religions is evil and must be suppressed? Or the lawsuits pursued regularly to give Muslims special privileges and treatment, and to exempt them from our civil society laws? Or the self censorship of the mass media that prohibits reporting on any of these crimes and execrations? Or the fact that Muslim leaders are preaching NON assimilation and resistance to our laws? Or the fact that they have elevated the quran to a higher position that supesedes our Constitution? Or the fact that the ex Muslims and nonobservant Muslims are afraid to speak out against this because they will then be revealed as apostates and murdered? Of course sugar coating Muslims like the TV reality show would have done seems to be par for the course....but anything that shows them doing anything bad is banned.....is this that our country has come to?
December 13, 2011 3:22am
Hum, Salzman....Where did you learn your hate and misunderstanding? I could guess.
December 12, 2011 9:14pm
aah, is your vibrator not working, maybe you should go to lows and buy some batteries blah blah blah blah just another f*&^%d up dummy that listens to everything the media says, daaahhhhh
December 12, 2011 11:27am
I've seen no attempt to silence criticsm, but only an attempt to keep people from assuming that the radical Islamists represent all Muslims. In what way is this different from Christians orchestrating campaigns to inform people that not all Christians are represented by extremist doomsday groups or creationists?
As to such things as honor killings, etc, you should be aware that they are not "Islamic" in nature, but rather cultural, going back to cultural practicies that predate Islam. They are not condoned by the Qur'an, but there are any number of people out there who will insist that they are—people who have not bothered to read the Qur'an themselves to find out.
It has been observed by a number leaders within mainstream Islam that the American style of democracy is not only compatible with the teachings of Muhammad, but encouraged by them.
Comments like Lonra's and Americaforever confirm the sad truth that a show like All-American Muslim is needed to counteract the dogmatic myth that Islam is evil and all Muslims the enemies of truth and freedom.
I understand that the binary all or nothing point of view is easier to maintain, that it requires less effort and critical reasoning on the part of its "believers", but it does a disservice to truth and rejects reality. It also causes you to see other human beings as something less than that—which makes them easier to dismiss and to hate.
Don't give in to the desire for comfortably simple worldviews that demonize entire groups of people. That helps no one.
December 12, 2011 10:29am
very well said
December 12, 2011 8:27am
Tolerance of Islamic intolerance is intolerable in a democratic society which respects human rights. Read Koran and Hadith and see for yourself how Islam promotes supremacist ideology of hate toward non-Muslims, apartheid for "people of the book (Jews and Christians who are forced to pay special taxes and wear special clothing to identify them) and misogyny.
CAIR and other white washers of Islam, claiming that this supremacist ideology of hate toward non-Muslims is "a peaceful" religion should be taken to court for defamation of Jews, Christians and other religions, based on Koranic verses and Hadith. They would do better if they spend their energies on REFORMING Islam to make it compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and US Constitution, which it is NOT!