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.

[Askel5]

=== Some folks might not get the dark humor or satire, though.


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.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Eva is the short dark haired woman married to the rich guy. He just decided he wanted a child after his mother was injured in a hit and run. Unfortunately, when he and his wife married, he stipulated no kids.

Marcia Cross is the redheaded perfectionist.

[theFIRMbss]

>From the promos, it appears to be a show about married women breaking their marriage vows by having sex with their neighbor's husband(s). I don't see the entertainment value in that

So true! At least on The OC it's teenage girls doing the fun stuff . . .

[It's me]

The Salvation Army got $1.5 billion from Joan Kroc last year. That's billion with a B.

I don't like the incessent ringing bells. If people want to give then they should give the absence of red kettles shouldn't keep them from giving.

[TheBigB]

Uh oh...Mischa Barton...must..not...get...distracted...

[It's me]

Do people actually think this is a drama portraying a slice of normal American life?

Remember Dan Quayle and his remark on Murphy Brown?

[Fierce Allegiance]

Well, except the third from the back left, who was doing the daughters ex-boyfriend.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Let me try and clear it up for you. Gabrielle was having a fling with the gardener. One character, played by Terri Hatcher, is divorced and has a crush on the single man who recently moved in. Unfortunately, Nicole Sheridan's character is circling around the guy like a shark. Marcia Cross and the married mom with 4 kids (who are driving her slowly mad)are not fooling around on their husbands.

[Ignatz]

I'll thank you NOT to include me in your "witch hunt" reference.
I merely reported on how the promotional spots for the show come across to me: Desperate housewives desperately having sex with other desperate housewive's husbands (or outside of their marriage, in any event).
If that's NOT a component of the show, I wonder why it's being "sold" that way?

I'm not calling for the show to be taken off of the air, but I think it is prudent for advertisers to consider the effect their sponsorship of a program might have on viewers/consumers. The market will eventually decide the fate of all television programs, just as it should.

[Fierce Allegiance]

There are childrren reading FR right now, so why are you swearing.

Want to save the little minds, don't watch it. My 4 daughters don't.

I prefer not to live in Hillary's village.

[nmh]

I notice Walmart never had any intentions of advertising on this show but ALAS TARGET and K-MART still continue to advertise. I DISTINCLTY remember some freepers out there getting their under wear in knots knocking Walmart and pushing K-Mart and Target. BTW, both K-Mart and Target and heavy Demoncrat contributors. I know, some still won't get it.

[vox_freedom]

I don't like the incessent ringing bells. If people want to give then...

The Target decision cuts over $9 million to this worthwhile organization. The basis of their decision is also suspect, given the Salvation Army's policy of not providing benefits to homosexual partners. I personally like the sound of bells ringing during the Christmas season and people are free to give or not. Target is now depriving folks of this opportunity to give when they shop at their stores. By the way, Target never uses the word Christmas in their "holiday" promotions...

[Ignatz]

Let me try and clear it up for you. Gabrielle was having a fling with the gardener. One character, played by Terri Hatcher, is divorced and has a crush on the single man who recently moved in. Unfortunately, Nicole Sheridan's character is circling around the guy like a shark. Marcia Cross and the married mom with 4 kids (who are driving her slowly mad)are not fooling around on their husbands

I appreciate the effort, Owl, but the references are lost on me since I have no idea who any of those characters are! But I'll try: Gabrielle, the one having a fling with the gardner, is her charater married on the show? How about Nicolette Sheridan's character, the one sharking the single guy, is her character married on the show?

[It's me]

I understand all that. But, like I said, if people really want to give then they will.

I like bell ringing at Christmastime as well but, please! You like the bell ringing by the Salvation Army at the red kettles?

[SweetCaroline]

I just talked to Kmart Corporation's Aylwin Lewis secretary and explained that I have been a customer for over twenty five years and I will not be shopping there for any longer. I explained that I was shocked that KMART would stoop so low to put profits before principle. Why I am telling you, is this woman was grateful for my call and agreed with me. She said she had received other calls and is listing every one of them and would make sure Mr. Aylwin would reviewed them. CALL THEM NOW, IT IS WORKING!!!

[asgardshill]

actually none of them 'have sex with the neighbor's husband(s)'

You are correct. Sexually frustrated wifey is too busy fantasizing about boinking the hired help, and the children are crushing the life out of pedestrians in the family car and trying to justify it by noting the victim's advanced age. Who knows - maybe the writers will get around to depicting actual fornication and murder next year. But I won't be there to see it.

This FR witch hunt is humorous.

Which "witch hunt" would that be? People are expressing their opinions pro and con about the show. And while its not my cup of tea, I am in no way begrudging you the "right" to watch it. I do ask in turn that you do not begrudge me the right to express my opinion about this horribly-written show and to contact the show's sponsors and suggest that they not support the airing of a show that trades on a suggestive title, sexual innuendo, and blue state "morality" on a broadcast network. That's the beauty of the free market - we both win.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Aaah, can't think of a good comeback? You'd have to have actually watched an episode to understand my comment.