Multiple petitions with over 200,000 signatures asking Lowe’s to reverse its decision to pander to bigots and pull advertising from TLC’s All-American Muslim were delivered by Christian clergy to Lowe’s executives, but the company will not reverse its decision.
Faith leaders from Charlotte, where Lowe’s is headquartered, delivered the petitions yesterday, including ones from Faithful America, CREDO Action, Change.org, and People for the American Way, according to a press release from Faith in Public Life. A North Carolina pastor, Rev. Dennis Teall-Fleming, says in that release, “As faith leaders, we know the importance of working together across faith lines and the valuable contributions American Muslims make to our nation. We are concerned that Lowe’s’ decision to pull their advertisements from ‘All-American Muslim’ based on the demands of an extreme fringe group may fuel divisions in our nation instead of supporting fundamental American values of honesty, community, and interfaith acceptance. We’re insisting today that they change course and reinstate the advertising.”
To their credit, Lowe’s executives met with the group, but they didn’t budge, because they’d rather get money from bigots instead of people like me. The Charlotte Observer reported that it “won’t reinstate the advertising. Lowe’s also said its decision was not motivated by pressure from a Florida-based Christian group,” and insist that it happened before they heard from the organization, as, the paper reports, “a member of Lowe’s social media team brought negative chatter about the show to management’s attention that was appearing on social networks. The decision to pull the ads was made shortly afterwards.”
That group, by the way, the Florida Family Association, is actually just one guy, a former porn addict whose previous targets include a high school gay-straight alliance because he’s, you know, a bigot.
Lowe’s VP of marketing, Tom Lamb, told the paper, “We’re surprised at how much happened and how quickly it happened in the context of an advertising decision.” And he reiterated that their “decision was absolutely not, despite what’s been reported in the media, influenced by any one group.”
Yes it was: It was influenced by bigots, which your spokesperson admits. Let’s assume that the tidal wave of hate from the Florida Family Association’s sheep didn’t arrive until after Lowe’s made the decision to stop advertising, but that it happened because, like its executives insist, there was negative conversation about the show online.
Guess who that was? Bigots! As Lowe’s discovered when it deleted more than 28,000 racist and hate-filled comments written by illiterate, bigoted morons from its Facebook page, the people who make this show “controversial” are bigots who can’t understand how Muslims are regular people. If people were bored by the show or thought it was lame, there would not have been a groundswell of social media chatter. And as I’ve pointed out before, critics loved it. Kayak’s response similarly gave bigoted reactions too much weight, and that’s the real problem here.
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