Posted on 11/29/2004 7:30:26 AM PST by NYer
Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, A&W and Long John Silvers, has stopped advertising on the ABC Network show Desperate Housewives. The move comes after the companys headquarters were flooded with e-mails and phone calls from concerned customers.
Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of public affairs for Yum! Brands, announced the decision in a letter dated November 17, 2004, to Bill Johnson, president of the American Decency Association (ADA). As posted on ADAs Web site, the letter reads:
I wanted to inform you that Yum! Brands will not be advertising in Desperate Housewives going forward. We determined that the content of the program is inconsistent without Media Ethics Guidelines. As a result, we have notified ABC and have pulled advertising from the balance of year programming for Pizza Hut and KFC. Our Taco Bell brand had no plans to advertise on Desperate Housewives any time during the remainder of the year.
Johnson and colleagues with the American Family Association have been monitoring the show and informing their constituents of the companies supporting it through advertising. While he is pleased with this development, he still has concerns.
This decision was a long time coming, Johnson said, noting that the company went weeks without responding to any of the customer comments made on the matter.
Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for Americas Culture & Family Institute, said this is good news.
This is a perfect example of why concerned citizens should never give up, even when it seems their voice is not being heard, Knight said. Yum! Brands never responded to the tons of e-mail complaints they received, yet all the while the company was weighing the affect this show was having on the culture and its corporate reputation. They weighed the matter carefully and agreed with their customers.
We rejoice that Yum! Brands realizes the import of this decision, Johnson added. Desperate Housewives is nasty and destructive to the American family. Burger King made a similar decision weeks ago upon finding out the nature of the program, he added.
While asking people to contact Yum! Brands and thank them for this move, Johnson also sounds a word of caution. We now can only hope that Yum! Brands will also steer clear of Life As We Know It [also aired on ABC] and similar types of cultural-rotting programming, he said.
He added that the ADAs boycott of Yum! Brands would continue as long as the company continued advertising on Life As We Know It.
Other advertisers remain strong supporters of the new fall dramas. Target and K-Mart are the two most notable examples.
Here are two companies that are willing to recklessly place profits before principle. Dirtying the airwaves and sullying untold numbers of children doesnt concern them much, but greed does, said Johnson.
Take Action:
To contact Target and K-Mart:
Target Corporation
Mr. Robert Ulrich
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Phone: 612-304-6073 or 1-800-440-0680
Fax: 612-696-3731
To send an e-mail, click here.
Kmart Corporation
Aylwin Lewis
3100 W. Big Beaver Rd.
Troy, MI 48084
Phone: 248-463-1000
Fax: 248-463-5636
To send an e-mail, click here.
Please take a moment to send a note of thanks to Yum! Brands for dropping support of Desperate Housewives and encourage them to do the same with Life As We Know It. Correspondence should be directed to Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of public affairs, Yum! Brands Inc.
Uh.....can you toss some my way, too?
Then you must really have hated "West Side Story", or even Romeo and Juliet.
Try "Will and Grace" for something really offensive. Will and Grace takes an abomination (homosexuality) and makes it normal. This show does no such thing. When people do bad things, there are (usually) consequences.
Thank you for the criticism...I wear it proudly! :)
Am I the only person around who hasn't the foggiest idea as to the premise of this show?
The show gets 40% of all those watching TV turned to that show.
For every advertiser you get to quit the show, there are ten more waiting to sign on and pay double.
The show is a smash hit, the kind that comes along every 10 years or so.
The best thing to do is to turn it off if you want to make a statement. I don't think I've seen more than minutes myself.
One thing I do know, this show isn't going to leave the air anytime soon. Just turn it off.
They ought to be boycotting Yum! for producing body-rotting food products too...
Read the thread and you'll find out! I've seen the ads but didn't know it was so funny. Guess I'll have to tune in and make up my own mind.
LOL! Me, a liberal? Anyone who makes that claim has no clue who I am. Ironic, ain't it.
I hate all the gay-promoting shows. There really seems to be an abundance of them. When they come on, I, like you and most other rational people, change the channel, usually to History, Travel or TLC or Discovery.
Have you ever watched "Joan of Arcadia". There are few sexual situations, but I find it in many ways disturbing at a much more fundamental level. "Joan" talks with "god", but the tasks "god" gives her are quite banal. "Joan of Arc" she isn't. Neither is she a female Moses.
According to a media reporter it was initially written for half a season with another show slated to replace it.
Thanks for removing the pertinent part of my quote, that evidently didn't fit with your premise.
My statement was: Target is now depriving folks of this opportunity to give when they shop at their stores.
Of course everyone knows that they can donate directly by sending a check. I will and I will also seek out a kettle to donate that way. The Salvation Army provides food for the hungry, companionship to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, opportunities for underprivileged children, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, and many more services. They also manage energy assistance programs to assist the poor with their oil and electric bills. They do all this without government $$ and with the lowest overhead administrative costs of any major charity.
definately pleasant on the eyes, but her character is a bit of a shallow twit.... might be willing to bed her, but no way I'd have wed her.
Anyway, frankly I don't find the show an affront to decency, as much as some of those that protest it seem to. They never show the immorral actions of the characters as "decent" or "acceptable"... in fact they are always portrayed in a far less than noble light.
If these busy bodies want to clean up TV, they should be dealing with the garbage that's on the air from 9amish to about 5pmish when Springer, The Soaps, Maurie and all the rest affront all decency at times when children are home and many sadly home alone in the afternoons.
I have enjoyed DH, though the stories are getting a bit over the top and rapidly declining into just an evening soap opera sadly. I don't know how much longer I'll keep watching... but if I do drop it, it will be due to the fact the show is growing boring and predictable... not because someone's saying the content is inappropriate.
Watch the show for once before passing judgement, it isn't what you think. I agree the name projects a certain expectation, but it is not free for all wife swapping.
I don't watch the show, but I have no problem with advertisers. There is no surprise content in this show and any parent who allows their children to watch it gets what he deserves.
The free market seems to be doing its job.
Of course, it could always evolve into something more. Wouldn't it be ironic if in a few seasons Desperate Housewives became the most intelligent, most thought provoking show on the air.
So, you want to jump on me because I don't wholeheartedly applaud the ongoing efforts to tear down this society's moral values? You want to claim I feel superior because I don't enjoy watching women committing sleaze, adultry, etc. - although funny?
Sorry - sleaze and adultry destroyed my family years ago and I don't find much humor or value in watching it for entertainment.
I've seen the child waiting at the window for a dad to visit who just did not care about him any longer.
And, I intend to speak up against the Hollywood/liberal/media efforts to de-sensitize us to porn, depravity and present it as entertainment. I remember the quality tv and the quality movies and the stuff today does not even compare. I want to be uplifted - not depraved.
Hi HJ.
To me the title doesn't project wife-swapping or swinging, but rather women sneaking around behind their husbad's back's and having sex with other men. That's quite a different matter, imho.
Joan is a good show, though declining in quality this season. Sexuality has been touched on in the show, though not a major plotline in every episode it isn't taboo.
My problem with the show this season, is that unlike Season 1, they have gone out of their way to make everyones life and the events in it a huge drama. Not overly suprising as many shows like this tend to degrade into this rapidly by scriptwriters.
I hope it will improve.
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