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 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.
The Sopranos was supposed to be for 4 years only and David Chase had the main plot line already written. But 2 things happened, the actress playing the pivotal character (Tony's Mom) died and the show was a runaway hit.
I would have liked to think that Tony and Carmella would cash-in to the Witness Protection Program in the end leaving the rest of his psychopath buddies dead or in prison.
Again, Watch the show, its not about what you think it is.
Yes, one character is running around. That however is not the case for all and the one that is, her actions are never portrayed as proper or acceptable, and she has been forced into all sorts of situations to keep her lies quiet... her friends do not even know, nor condone etc etc etc.
Yes the title conjures up wifes running around willy nilly, but that is NOT what the show is about. The characters are all "desperate" for different reasons, and that desperation has little if anything to do with sex most of the time.
You judged a book not by its cover, but simply by its name. Watch the show, you will realize its not what you think it is.
The 3rd world countries we are having problems with believe it. This type of show and other garbage Hollywood puts out is great propaganda for the Islam fundamentalists/terrorists to continue their hate America rhetoric.
My personal favorie was from "Gamera"...I worked in the RadioPahrmaceutical industry as a Radioactive Materials Production Chemist, and this was on my answering machine at my office...
(After the plane crashes and "blowed up real good")...
Scientist to reporter/photographer: "Don't go in there...there's Radiation!"
Tom Servo: "And as everyone knows, it can only affect you if you touch it!"
Well, if I happen to be channel-surfing and I come across it, I'll give it a look.
Who gives a darn what third world countries....or ANY county, thinks? They ought to be shaking in their boots worrying about what WE think of them!
Not at all ... you misunderstood my post.
I just thought it apt you pointed out how "funny" it is poke fun at the increasingly rare Transitional Form that is the Suburban Housewife with a little kiddie porn on Sunday nights the whole family can watch ... assuming ones kids are as hip and edgy as their parents, anyway.
The only who feel "superior" around here are those who can congratulate themselves on their "moral" triumph at the election booth at the beginning of the month and yet tout a show like this.
Taking a page from hypocrites like Clinton and the "personally opposed, But ..." party, they're somehow above their own values when suits their higher purposes of Mass Entertainment as provided by the "liberal" media and the vanguard of "Free Speech" that is Hollywood.
"If my deepest, darkest despair had choreography -- *this* would be it." -Tom Servo
I must ping Tom to any and all MST3K-related posts! :)
RE "It is beginning to look like DH was designed from the git-go to be a "one-season wonder". "
Terry Hatcher and the guy that plays her love interest have supposedly already signed contracts for a second season. So it looks like it will be at least a two-season wonder.
You know there was one part of that episode last night that was realistic,and imo, well done. One of the women has 3 rambunctious boys, and an infant. The first episode was when the neighbors all gathered at the home of a neighbor whose wife commited suicide. The kids stripped down and jumped in the pool. The mother waded right in after them fully clothed, pulled them out of the pool, and marched them home. It was funny.
Last night, she gets a phone call from her husband, and finds out he will be delayed on his business trip. She takes the kids over to a neighbor's home, and ends up sitting in a soccer field. I'm trying to condense this. The 2 other mothers find her and help her get through what looks like a nervous breakdown. Nothing sarcastic, pretty much pro family. It illustrated how tough it is to parent 3 little hellions without support from your friends and family.
Most of the show is tongue in cheek, though. If you don't like that sort of thing, watch something else.
I'm already boycotting Target over their decision to ban Salvation Army bellringers.
My 10 yr old and I watch HGTV together. We especially love the shows where they restore older homes, such as Victorian and Craftsman homes. The History channel is great. All of us sit and watch that.
Someone mentioned Will and Grace. I've never seen it. I've never watched Friends. It doesn't appeal to me. My 22 yr old and I accidently tuned in to the first episode of DH, and thought it was pretty darned funny. Of course it has occured to me that my family and our personal experiences are a lot different from other posters to this thread. We've got some real live ones in our family tree ;-)
THANKS, I know ALL ABOUT the Salvation Army and just LOVE THEM!!!! I'm just saying that giving CASH to an unknown person standing in front of a store is NOT always the BEST plan.....We ONLY give to the SALVATION ARMY, pretty much. Sorry if I offended you.
I was afraid I had misinterpreted it after I finally read the thread.
I have not seen the show and might actually enjoy it - but I am currently so mad at the media, at Hollywood and the left that I am on the verge of withdrawing from all.
One additional reason for my rage is the fact that they don't produce the quality anymore. I miss the good movies, the good TV.
The industry is appealing to one half of the audience out there and the rest of us are waiting for a Mel Gibson, a new Walt Disney, to come along who says...."you know, I think there are people out there who would enjoy a movie that gives hope, that depicts the beauty of character, that inspires as well as tells an interesting story". "I think I could make those again".
That is what is needed.
One of my favorite rental experiences has been the "24" series. Absolutely best, most entertaining, edge of the seat viewing I have found in years. We have actually been to the video store 4 times looking for the 3rd year series.
This show brought back the enjoyment of escapism and the cliff hanger waiting for next week's episode. It recalled to mind the Saturday movies in the rural communities each week which became a tradition.
So, instead of the wonder of the great movies we grew up on, our children get to watch depravity, sick humor, the creeping onslaught of re-directed morals where bad is good, good is ridiculous.
We must ask WHY, we must stand up for our society unless we are willing to give it to those that seek to debase it to the lowest common denominator. Again WHY???????
There are only two reasons I can think of......
1. The Hollywood/TV creators have destroyed their own humanity to the point that they cannot understand, cannot even see what the other half of Americans are looking for. How? Maybe drugs, maybe the onslaught of porn, maybe their saturation in their own industry spiraling them ever downward to the depths.
2. The effort purposely to weaken American morals by use of the entertainment industry. The liberals seem to be intent on socialism, removal of God, internationalism, and total acceptance of corruption and non-acceptance of traditional American heartland values. How better to do that than through our schools and our entertainment - movies, tv, computer games?
The 3rd world countries have had a problem with us long before Hollywood became what it is.
I don't worry about the opinions of countries that butcher and starve their countrymen, and anniilate their weaker neighbors.
At this point, who cares if they like us, as long as they fear us.
Good to hear - but doesn't Pepsico own Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc.?
I couldn't boycott YUM! no matter what crap they sponsor. I'm addicted to those darn Long John Silver's chicken planks!!!
If we boycott everyone we don't agree with I guess we'll have to stop eating! I can't keep track of all the "boycotts" so I don't. Now we're boycotting Target and shopping at Wal-Mart....but we're not supposed to shop at Wal-Mart either?? Good grief!
btw, ever tried Taco Bell's apple dessert?? yum!
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