AFA Boycott Targets Ford’s Gay Marketing

No sooner did the American Family Association call off its nine-year boycott of Walt Disney World (universally deemed a miserable failure) than it tuned its homophobic attention to that bastion of testosterone-tanked truck drivers, Ford Motor Co. According to a Detriot Free Press article, the Ford boycott is primarily in response to Ford’s advertisements in gay publications that offer to donate $1,000 to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for every Jaguar or Land Rover sold. (Supposedly, those vehicles are considered gayer than, say, the F150 pickup or Ford Expedition.)

But, while AFA Special Projects Director Randy Sharp said with its marketing ploy, “Ford is willing to do something they have refused to do for any other group,” AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon painted Ford with a broader brush:

“From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support homosexual groups and their agenda, to forcing managers to attend diversity training on how to promote the acceptance of homosexuality… Ford leads the way.”

Sounds terrible, don’t it, but Ford is actually a leader is such diversity and philanthropic activities.

In 2004, Ford donated $77.9 million to a wide variety of groups last year. The majority — $39.6 million — went to education. A much smaller percentage went to community organizations for gays, Hispanics, blacks, Asians and other groups.

AFA e-mailed an announcement about the Ford boycott to 2.2 million supporters. So far, less than 55,000 people have signed a pledge supporting the boycott. That’s less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the total who received the announcement.

Looks like AFA is off to another great boycott start. If they do for Ford what they did for Disney, the automaker can expect sales to increase during the boycott.

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