Yum! Brands Discontinues Support of 'Desperate Housewives'

Culture & Family Institute ^ | November 26, 2004 | Martha Kleder

[NYer]

Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, A&W and Long John Silver’s, has stopped advertising on the ABC Network show Desperate Housewives. The move comes after the company’s 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 ADA’s 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 America’s 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 ADA’s 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 doesn’t 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.

[ClancyJ]

Absolutely the most enjoyable rental I have ever had. We would watch all four episodes in one night - then the next night one of us would find our way to the store for the next four.

Also of note - no gratious sex, no use of the "F" word - just great story line, excitement and enjoyment.

[Askel5]

=== Uh, dude, its TV.


I have been in a morgue with the freshly drained and pumped, jaws-stapled body of a Sister of Charity on the slab. The nuns are very good about cleaning the bodies before the coroner even picks them up.

But I guarandamntee you that if these CSI shows were actually striving at anything like realism in the ritual sexual killings which seem to predominate, EVERYONE in the lab would be wearing nose-plugs as they pick at wounds of four-day old corpses and unwind the bloody wrappings round the tube of toothpaste used to hold Botched-Tranny's "vagina" in place.

[blu]

If you've never seen the show, but want it condemned based on its commercials......

Hmmm....I never read "Fanny Hill", but I heard it was quite racy. Let's ban it.

[Future Snake Eater]

I do remember the "Earth vs. Soup" skit, that was a good one. The others...well, I must bow to your knowledge of MST3K. I am impressed!

And who can forget such classic songs as "Patrick Swayze Christmas," "Loving Lover's Loving Love," "Gypsy Moons," and the big finale of "To Earth"?

[Search4Truth]

"Actually Bree deliberately fed her husband onions when he told her he wanted a divorce. Hey, isn't divorce a sin where you come from?

What you aren't understanding is that this show takes certain ideas that are batted about in "serious" dramas, and shoots them over the top. Ever see Boston Public? Now there is a show I thought was dangerous for my kids to see. It fostered an anti parental authority attitude. Beware of the seemingly benign programing. It is more insidious than a blatant parody of suburban life.

Let me guess. You don't have a tv. Good for you, but don't make judgments on hearsay commentary just because it fits your morally superior viewpoint."


"Hearsay commentary"? From the Media Research Council? Are we suppose to believe your "hearsay commentary" over a respected media reporting organization such as theirs? So that you can make judgments that fit your morally inferior viewpoint?

Just how ridiculous an argument are you willing to make to try and defend your indulgence in immoral entertainment? Do you think that it will have no affect on your children? Don't you care what effects your moral indifference will have on them?

Have you no shame?

BTW, My HDTV is probably bigger than your car. I just don't allow immoral advertisers, with their immoral programming, to use it to sell me their products.

[TheBigB]

There were actually two EvS skits...the first one from EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (the original) and the second from THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (where Dr. Forrester and Pearl inform Crow that they sold the screnplay).

"Judy, what am I doing?" :o)

[Victoria Delsoul]

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.

Wow, I don't watch that stuff, but this sounds good. It seems that things are turning around for the better.

[cicero's_son]

Uh, dude, its TV. Any stench you notice is probably coming from your side

Lovely post. Aren't you just the picture of "class?"

[Barnacle]

It's the best show on TV, why would you boycott it?

? ?

[Barnacle]

Other advertisers remain strong supporters of the new fall dramas. Target and K-Mart are the two most notable examples.

It's no wonder that Target would be a part of this tripe. They're the a%)h$^&s who just banned the Salvation Army bell ringers.

And K-Mart... those idiots somehow positioned themselves to buyout Sears. Their motto must be, "Share in the catastrophe."

[daybreakcoming]

You are not telling me anything I don't know. But do some research on the propaganda crapola the Islam fundies and their media use on the Arab Street - straight out of Hollywood and our own media. They're using our own against us to keep the street stirred up.

I wasn't thinking of France who has lately had a minister speak out against "American Culture" but I'm in agreement about our history with them concerning the American Rev - I even think Lafayette has been oversold as a hero. There was a German guy - can't think of his name - who was much more instrumental in helping us win our independence than any French were.

Otherwise, we agree to disagree, eh?

[birbear]

Honestly? This smacks of the same sort of reasoning by which "liberals" figure "conservatives" are too uptight, repressed or kneejerk moralistic to get past the packaging and appreciate the real worth of the perverse.

Judging my a lot of the coments on this thread, the liberals view of conservatives might not be entirely inaccurate.

[birbear]

People should watch a tv show before they give a review of said program.

But it's the job of FReepers everywhere to boycott all things that we don't understand/agree with. It's right there in the bylaws. And by golly, if one FReeper thinks it's bad for me, well then, by golly it is bad for me.

Me thinks there's a little too much Kool-Aid being passed around on this thread. (And most of the boycott threads)

[birbear]

Good to hear - but doesn't Pepsico own Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc.?

Use to. Pepsico spun off it's restaurant division about 6 or 7 years ago into Tricon... Tricon changed it's name to YUM! Brands about 3 years ago. Ticker symbol is YUM (down .18 today to 45.61)

[TheSpottedOwl]

Who is the Media Research Council, and why should I automatically pay attention to what their opinion of decency is? If I see something that ticks me off, I'll write and complain. My comments aren't hearsay, because I've actually watched the program.

As an American, I have a God given right to my so called morally inferior viewpoint. Beats your attitude by a mile. No I don't have any shame when I'm dealing with an intolerant person hiding behind their superior morality. It's a tv show. Get over it.

I'm sure your tv is bigger than my car. I'm trying as hard as I can to care. Mine is 19 inches, and isn't cable ready. Material possessions just aren't that important to me.

Oh well, we'll never any sort of agreement, so have a nice evening.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I'll do you one better. What do you want to bet that the commies in Hollywood have been helping Arab media spread the hatred against us? Someone had to teach them how to run a television network.

Of course we can agree to disagree :-)

[TheSpottedOwl]

I think sometimes the boycotts get a little out of control. I've written plenty of emails to retailers etc, when I personally can see that there is a problem. However, it has to be important enough to bother with. This show isn't as bad as half the commercials I see. Verizon Wireless has a couple that perpetuate the notion that daddy is a useless dunce. They got an email from me.

If this keeps up, boycotts and letter writing campaigns are going to lose credibility, and so will we.

[asgardshill]

Lovely post. Aren't you just the picture of "class?"

So you are taking the position that a television broadcast signal can transmit smells? Oooooookay.

[asgardshill]

I have been in a morgue with the freshly drained and pumped, jaws-stapled body of a Sister of Charity on the slab.

You have my sympathy.

[theFIRMbss]

>But I guarandamntee you that if these CSI shows were actually striving at anything like realism in the ritual sexual killings

A few days ago,
I re-read Cornwall's book on
Jack the Ripper and

was still shocked, again,
at how gruesome real photos
of real victims are

compared to TV.
Watching CSI, often
I look away, but

TV's nothing like
the kind of awful horror
real life generates . . .