Urgent: Ford Motor Co. slams the "gay agenda"; pulls ads. Bigots.

CALL ALL YOUR LOCAL FORD DEALERS ALL DAY LONG TOMORROW AND TELL THEM THEIR RACIST BIGOTRY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

Ford has caved to pressure from right-wing bigots American "Family" Association

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/12/ford-motor-company-embraces-homophobia.html


Saturday, December 03, 2005

Ford Motor Company embraces homophobia in order to appease religious right
by John in DC - 12/03/2005 11:59:00 AM


UPDATE: Some initial contact info for Ford's public relation's people. Let's fill their voice mail boxes over the weekend. Ask them if they'd pull all their advertising in black media or Jewish media if the Klan gave them a call:

Contact: Rosemary Mariniello, Jaguar Land Rover North America, (201) 818-8010
Contact: Jim Cain, Ford Division, (313) 248-6288
Contact: Sara Tatchio, Lincoln and Mercury, (313) 594-3744
Contact: Roger Ormisher, Volvo Cars of North America, Inc., (800) 970-0888
Contact: George Pipas, Ford Motor Company, (313) 323-9216
Contact: Dan Bedore, Ford Division, (313) 323-7045

Well, we just got our new campaign. Ford needs to be taught a lesson. If they think they're above the fray and too big to be influenced by the mean homosexuals, they ought to give Bill Gates a call and see what happened to Microsoft when they endorsed outright bigotry in order to appease America's Taliban.

In a nutshell, the rabid homophobes at the American Family Association threatened Ford with a boycott earlier this year because they were advertising in the gay press. Suddenly in June the AFA called off their threatened boycott because local Ford dealers had contacted the national Ford office and, apparently, suggested Ford might be amenable to working out a deal. Now we find out that Ford is pulling its gay ads and that Ford even tells the Advocate that the AFA's press release claiming credit for this entire thing is accurate.

Ford wants to dance with bigots, that's fine. But you don't get to do that in the year 2005 and remain a prosperous company in America.

I want phone numbers and email contacts for all of Ford's top executives and public relations people. Go to it folks.

More from the Advocate:
The antigay American Family Association claimed a cultural victory on Thursday and called off its threatened boycott of Ford Motor Co. On Friday, Ford spokesman Mike Moran confirmed to Advocate.com that the company will stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications but insisted it was strictly a business decision.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker came under fire from the AFA in May for its longtime efforts to increase LGBT workplace diversity and support gay rights causes. Ford has long been a regular advertiser within gay media, including The Advocate, and has donated significant sums to LGBT causes and nonprofit groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.

Threatened with a boycott by the Mississippi-based AFA, Ford and some of its dealers agreed to negotiate, and the AFA announced in June that it would hold off on its planned action. On Thursday, AFA announced the boycott would be canceled altogether.

"They've heard our concerns; they are acting on our concerns. We are pleased with where we are," said Donald Wildmon, AFA’s chairman, in a statement. "Obviously there are still some small matters of difference, as people will always have, but generally speaking, we are pleased with the results—and therefore the boycott that had been suspended now officially ended."

Specific terms of any formal agreement between the AFA and Ford—and whether any such agreement has in fact been reached—remain unclear.

When first contacted, Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions. In a second conversation he confirmed that the company would no longer advertise Jaguar and Land Rover products in the gay media, saying that the decision was strictly "business."
More info, here is Ford's Board of Directors. Anyone got contact info:

Sir John R. H. Bond
Ellen R. Marram
Stephen G. Butler
Homer A. Neal
Kimberly A. Casiano
Jorma Ollila
Edsel B. Ford II
James J. Padilla
William Clay Ford, Jr.
Carl E. Reichardt
Irvine O. Hockaday, Jr.
Robert E. Rubin
Marie-Josée Kravis
John L. Thornton
Richard A. Manoogian

You can also find Ford's senior executives here.

What would be most useful is if someone inside Ford can send us a copy of the entire company phone directory. The folks at Paramount did it during our StopDrLaura.com campaign, it was quite helpful.

utterly craven and disgusting. a "business decision" to discontinue advertising to a group that has disposable income, when the american auto makers are going down the tubes? oh yeah, that makes a LOT of sense.

thank you for the phone numbers--there are definitely going to be some calls made tonight.

hah .. no more! I will call tomorrow!

No one should buy a Ford until they reverse course on this.

NO ONE.

313-333-4306

I was talking cars to her, though she knows nothing about them generally, and mentioned a Ford model. "But isn't that a Ford?" she said. "Who'd want to drive one of them?"

but in FoMoCo's defense, that Ford GT is one of the best performance cars in the world (not like any of us can afford it)

None of them support the American worker none of them produce anything that isn't pure bullshit. How many plants have they closed? how many Americans workers have they tossed>

Pretty sad when today Toyota and Honda do more for the American worker than any of the big three.

and am proud of it, too.

Fuck the Big Three.

Cheers for the "Jap" car owners

:toast:

FORD SUCKS
(what's new?)

if any were made in America these days, he smiled and said No, if it were so, the people would not be able to afford them..


My grandmother many moons ago realized that America was selling itself to the lowest bidder and pounded it into me even as a small child to always ask that question..

Sadly, it is becoming harder and harder to find anything that can be admittedly made in this country...

something is wrong with this picture my fellow citizens, we need major restoration in order to once again find a way to realize what was once seen as "The American Dream" and attracted so many bright minds to our very shores...

Honda
Toyota
Hyundai

"Christian conservative group dropping Wells Fargo over gay issues"

Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian group based in Colorado Springs, is withdrawing funds from Wells Fargo because of its alleged involvement in "pro-gay" causes.


"Focus on the Family has elected to end its banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank's ongoing efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda. These efforts are in direct opposition to the underlying principles and purpose of Focus, and thus a decision of conscience had to be made, and a stand taken," said a statement on the Focus Web site.

etc--> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/03/state/n175550S78.DTL


Wells Fargo -- Minneapolis

and tell them what you think of their hate filled agenda.

http://www.afa.net/#

or click here to send them a personal message

http://www.afa.net/contact.asp

of what I e-mailed to Ford's senior executives:

and actually got through. The guy I spoke to was not a happy camper, I think they are being deluged with calls.

Please keep this kicked and KEEP CALLING all week.

What, to be treated like human beings? How awful! :sarcasm:

Thank God I don't own a Ford.

Dobson is crazy - and dangerous. He also closed all Am Fam Association bank accounts at Wells Fargo because the bank is "pro-gay". But Wells Fargo didn't cave - so far.

This idiot needs to be stopped. I agree we should all contact Ford to protest this action on their part. But the root of the problem is Dobson, IMO.

this Ford thing was organized by the American Family Assoc. - the ultra rightwing group in Mississippi headed by Donald Wildmon.

As of yet, I don't believe Dobson's group, Focus on the Family, has weighed in on this particular situation.

But they all have similar agendas. And they're all, I believe, on the SPLC's official "hate group" watch list.

Thanks for the correction.

I guess I am having trouble distinguishing these insane fundie 'Family' groups.

customers. Remember they decided it was cheeper to pay medical bills or give a small settlement than do the right thing then by doing a recall. Considering how little they cared about human lives then I shouldn't be surprised they don't care about doing the right thing now.

Ford wants to dance with bigots, that's fine. But you don't get to do that in the year 2005 and remain a prosperous company in America.

Surely that conjures images worthy of a skilled Photoshopper. Or maybe, "dances with American Taliban bigots."

Never again will I consider purchasing a Ford, just like my permanent boycott of Exxon/Mobil fuels.