<p>This ends my loyalty to Ford. Just because I’m hetero doesn’t mean that I’ll support a company that discriminates against people who do not share my sexual orientation.</p>
<p>"
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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Is there a list online anywhere (without having to actually go visit any AFA website) showing which companies AFA has boycotted and which have given in to them? I’d like to support companies that stand up to AFA’s pressures and actively boycott those that cave.</p>
<p>I predict they reverse this decision as soon as they consult their PR people and realize that the average income of gay couples is well over the average income of hetero couples- presumably the tax bracket they are aiming for with the Jag and the Land Rover.</p>
This sounds like a case of the rooster claiming credit for the sunrise, to me. This organization doesn’t seem to have a very successful track record with its quixotic boycotts, and I can’t imagine Ford really paid any attention to them.</h1>
<p>Acura plays adds made specifically for LGBT people. They say they haven’t faced the anticipated reaction from the far right. I wonder what the difference is.</p>
You don’t give them credit for starting the ads, but punish them for removing the ads. It does not make sense to me. With high gas prices Ford is suffering substantial reductions in revenues. This means Ford can’t spent money everywhere. </p>
<p>Ford may become the most significant car maker for Americans. Next year, Ford will introduce vehicles that can operate on regular gasoline but also operate on ethanol. E85 is a type of fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 gasoline. Since E85’s main ingredient is ethanol, which is non-toxic, water soluble and biodegradable, E85 is simply a better fuel for the world around us. </p>
<p>If everyone in America began using E85 vehicles, we would not need farm subsidies (American farmers would become rich from planting corn, the source of ethanol) and we would not be sending billions of dollars to countries whose sole wish to kill us and our allies.</p>
<p>and today Ford is announcing plant closures (10) and 30,000 job cuts in USA. I’d say their cut backs on ads is just a minor problem…I believe Ford and GM have about the same size blue collar labor force. These are big numbers of job reductions…but is it enough?</p>
<p>When I paid extra to get extra channels on my TV that included more college sports, I also got the Lesbian and Gay channel (LOGO). I was facinated with the ads, some of which were the same ads that you see on the other channels, but with gay couples instead of hetero ones. Other ads - the car companies for example - were just reusing the same ads they had on all the other channels.</p>
<p>I think this is fear on the part of Ford about boycott by Evangelicals and poor financial stats are an easy excuse to pull ads. I guess the next thing is to watch for the Delphi strike which will affect GM & Ford when they can least tolerate more troubles with production. The US auto industry is in a quick change or die mode.</p>