Ron Johnson, CEO - JC Penney
Posted on 02/09/2012 6:56:53 AM PST by narses
(CBS News) J.C. Penney is trying to rebuild its customer base with help from a new spokeswoman, Ellen DeGeneres. But a group called One Million Moms is accusing the company of "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon."
DeGeneres responded to the group on her TV show Wednesday, saying, "I'm happy about (being the spokesperson) J.C. Penney is happy about it. But there's this group called One Million Moms that is not happy about it. And normally I try not to pay attention to my haters, but this time I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators. This organization doesn't think I should be the spokesperson because I am gay. So for those of you tuning in for the first time, I'm gay. I hope you were sitting down. ... So they wanted to get me fired, and I'm proud and happy to say that J.C. Penney stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson."
In a statement last week, J.C. Penney said it stands behind its partnership the talk show host.
On "CBS This Morning," Thursday, J.C. Penney chief executive officer Ron Johnson, said the company "shares the same values" as DeGeneres and that the decision to have her as a spokesperson was a "no-brainer."
"We don't look at it like a controversy. One of the great things about America is people can speak their mind. And you know, the organization that believes one thing has spoken and it was great to see Ellen share her views yesterday. And we stand squarely behind Ellen as our spokesperson and that's a great thing. Because she shares the same values that we do in our company. Our company was founded 110 years ago on the golden rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like you would like to be treated yourself. And we think Ellen represents the values of our company and the values that we share."
This is a very strange protest. Ellen got quiet about her sexuality after her relationship mishap(lesbian partner became straight).
JC Penney is circling the bowl, and desperate to become relevant.
I don’t have a problem with JC Penney hiring Ellen. And the move is having better than the desired effect. Lots of attention to the new “JCP”. There’s always Target, and Kohl’s to name a couple of alternatives. I don’t shop at JCP, and hiring Ellen isn’t going to inspire me to check them out.
Buh bye Penneys.
“But that’s another thing I can’t understand. Why would a makeup company select an unattractive woman to be their spokeswoman, regardless of her “orientation”?”
Beauty being in the eye of the beholder....I don’t worry about it. Besides there’s a lot more ugly chicks than supermodels.
Smellen is “married” to it’s “wife”.
You can Google it, I won’t post links here.
I'm doing my best to uphold Family Values, but I'm running out of stores in which to shop. (Macys - transgender dressing rooms) (Penny's - anti-family)
We need a Pro-Family Department Store. (That's a good name for it.)
LOL! That’s actually pretty funny, Grunthor. Good one.
MrB ... you’re probably right on that. But as far as that category of people go, she probably flaunts it the least. Would you rather JCP hired Kathy Griffin?
JCP is certainly free to align with who they like as their spokesMAN, same as we are free to not align with JCP considering their choice to give the majority of us the bird.
Hope their moving to 5% of population as their new base works out, but I suspect more non-homo Americans will shop elsewhere than new customers they’ll attract with Degenerate. Maybe JCP should go ask HomoDepot how that worked out.
Am betting that within 2 weeks Degenerate will not be their spokesMAN.
Meanwhile the left keeps pretending that big business is rightwing, its not.
If JC Penny loses a bunch of customers they might change, MIGHT. Their views never will though.
J.C. Penney has every right to employ Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. I have every right to walk right on by their store.
Bad mistake hiring Ellen Degenerate.
J.C. Penney has every right to stand by their controversial decision. I have every right to shop elsewhere. I do not need J.C. Penney.
The whole spokesman thing is weird anyway. I have NEVER in my life saw a spokesman and said, “I am going to that store”. I go to the stores that I enjoy and want to buy things but it has nothing to do with a spokesman.
Don’t the Million Moms have a Second Ammendment to subvert?
Ellen is a very talented comedian & talkshow host. Yet putting her homosexuality up front has gotten her shows cancelled in the past. When she doesn’t push that aspect she does just fine with her audience.
It seems that the Mom’s have provoked Ellen. It’ll be interesting to see if Ellen goes into another career tailspin by once-again putting her lesbianism first. If I were J.C. Penney I’d be worried about that possibility.
There is a list somewhere of “gay” friendly companies. The gay organizations take note of companies which have “gay” friendly personnel policies and support the homosexual agenda. There are a lot of major companies on that list.
Starbucks recently came out as favoring homosexual marriage, as their corporate position. If I recall correctly, they also said that this position reflects their values and reflects diversity and all that.
There seems to be a great deal of pressure being brought on Corporate America to celebrate homosexuality.
Ellen is a cover girl, you know. She got the girl her Daddy always wanted her to be.
I like Ellen and wish her luck.
This is such a transparent PR stunt. Johnson is laughing at people he thinks are idiots for taking the bait and giving him exactly the visibility he wanted.
I was trying to think of one woman comedienne who’s actually funny. Came up blank. Griffin is outright disgusting. DeGeneres has backed off her ‘in your face’ lesbianism of earlier times, and she is funny, did a good job for AmEx.
The ‘shared values’ statement could well have been left unsaid. Even CEO’s are entitled to be stupid from time to time.
I tend to think ‘interest groups’ endlessly inserting themselves into corporate decisions is getting rather boring. The feminists managed to get Rush Limbaugh removed as spokesman for Florida Orange Juice. Somehow, RL speaking for Florida orange juice was going to contaminate it? Or DeGeneres flacking JC Penney will lessen the quality of their merchandise? Or, if I buy my kid Winnie the Poo jammies at JCP, they’ll end up gay?
Ron Johnson, CEO - JC Penney
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