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ZanatWork extends an apology for a rash judgment

ZanatWork

By ZanatWork
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ZanatWork

ZanatWork

Posted
Posted

What more needs to be said, really?

 

Bill looks like the biggest pussy since Clay Aiken. PR could have been used both ways, and the AFA could have been portrayed as the hateful little shitbags they are...but now Bill looks spineless, and the already floundering NA operations will likely suffer because of this.

 

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

Pa-fucking-thetic.

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J-150

J-150

Posted
Posted
What more needs to be said, really?

 

Bill looks like the biggest pussy since Clay Aiken. PR could have been used both ways, and the AFA could have been portrayed as the hateful little shitbags they are...but now Bill looks spineless, and the already floundering NA operations will likely suffer because of this.

 

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

Pa-fucking-thetic.

 

 

 

how is the CEO search going?

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MyBlueOval

MyBlueOval

Posted
Posted
What more needs to be said, really?

 

Bill looks like the biggest pussy since Clay Aiken. PR could have been used both ways, and the AFA could have been portrayed as the hateful little shitbags they are...but now Bill looks spineless, and the already floundering NA operations will likely suffer because of this.

 

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

Pa-fucking-thetic.

 

Could you explain this statement without using profanity please?

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ZanatWork

ZanatWork

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Could you explain this statement without using profanity please?

 

 

Certainly.

 

 

Ford's leadership cracked under a threatened boycott by the AFA (this mess has its own link in School of Free Thought, check it out) and is pulling ads from gay publications. The AFA has a couple million members and leaned on Ford (initially, Ford dealerships in Texas) until Ford asgreed to cut most of said ads.

 

Way to empower segregation, Billy.

 

For the record, I'm straight and happily married (12 years, almost) with an amazing son, and this doesn't directly affect me...but it does tell me about the people both running the company and also about people using the clout of pack tactics to keep bling hatred alive and well in the US.

 

Ford could have countered the boycott with a PR campaign that showed these goons for what they really are- the kind of sad little haters that create the KKK and/or Nazism-but decided to just knuckle under and give the domestic auto industry yet another example of weakness and bad decisions.

 

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../512060388/1148

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RichardJensen

RichardJensen

Posted
Posted

So.

 

Volvo will continue to target gay and lesbian consumers overtly, FoMoCo will continue to offer benefits to gay and lesbian employee partners, and this is a win for the AFA?

 

Hmmf.

 

Sounds like nobody got what they wanted.

 

Ford essentially stopped doing something that probably wasn't working very well to begin with (targeted advertising of LR products to gays), and cut back on Jaguar advertising (which they were probably going to do anyway), and wrapped it up in a nice neat little bundle and gave it to the AFA as an early Christmas present.

 

I'm guessing that they're going to keep targeting GLBTs with Volvo because it works, and they've stopped advertising Jags and LRs because it doesn't.

 

Had Ford rolled back benefits programs, or had Ford spokesmen publicly criticized GLBT lifestyles, that would be one thing; this is just business.

 

...

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RichardJensen

RichardJensen

Posted
Posted
"Had Ford rolled back benefits programs, or had Ford spokesmen publicly criticized GLBT lifestyles, that would be one thing; this is just business."

I agree.

marketing and advertising are like sausage and legislation. If you want to have any stomach for the final productt, you need to avoid watching it being made.

 

...

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Jason Kerluck

Jason Kerluck

Posted
Posted (edited)

Oh boy....they got me started!! :angry:

 

Personally I can't stand these "right-wing bible-bangers" who try to force everyone to fall in thier narrow line. I'm a Leftist-Liberal type that would have everyone live thier lives in whatever fashion they choose, so long as it harms no one else. While the vast majority of people have religious beliefs, most are also tolerant of other beliefs and lifestyles. That's the way the world should be, and that's what freedom means.

 

Ford is free to advertise in any manner of publication,to target any demographic they want.

 

Yet these hate groups, that so often use euphemisms like "Family" in thier titles, are no better than Nazi thugs who would push thier dogmatic bullshit down the throats of anyone they can bully. They wave the American flag, and call themselves righteous. But if they had thier way, they would criminalize gays, segregate minorities, and take us all back down the path of inequality and bigotry.

 

Sorry if this offends, but it's something that really gets under my skin.

Edited by Jason Kerluck
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taxman100

taxman100

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Posted

Guess I'll be the first to say I'm happy with the decision. Leaving out my personal feelings about the issue, it also makes business sense.

 

There is a reason the U.S. companies are getting their asses kicked right now - they are more concerned with looking politically correct in not only their hiring, but their advertising. While the Japanese continue to eat their lunch, they continue to pretend that advertising to politically correct groups will somehow bring them success.

 

I can see them advertise Jaquar and Land Rover - only prima-donna's buy those overpriced crapwagons. Both of those aquisitions have been huge wastes of time and money.

 

I may not agree completely with the AFA, but I have to say marketing to homosexuals will only ruin those brands to the majority of their customers. Think Subaru and lesbians, at least in the midwest.

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ehaase

ehaase

Posted
Posted
The straight white types are telling Ford how to spend its ad dollars...and has bullied the company into alienating the GLBT sector.

 

I think it's more important not to alienate the Southern evangelical sector, who purchase hundreds of thousands of Ford trucks and SUV's each year.

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ZanatWork

ZanatWork

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Posted (edited)
I think it's more important not to alienate the Southern evangelical sector, who purchase hundreds of thousands of Ford trucks and SUV's each year.

 

 

I think it's more appropriate to punish any group asking to segregate another...but hey, that's me being a silly anti-nazi and anti-KKK type.

 

It appears there's at least one other person who understands the cowardice and blind, phenomenal stupidity in this action:

 

 

http://www.autoextremist.com/page2.shtml#Rant

 

But wait...there's more!

 

 

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/content/1...24809/index.php

Edited by ZanatWork
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Jason Kerluck

Jason Kerluck

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Posted
I think it's more important not to alienate the Southern evangelical sector, who purchase hundreds of thousands of Ford trucks and SUV's each year.

 

The problem with that is you allow one group to hold sway upon another. What Ford has done is give merit to these bullies, and lent credibility to thier hate mongering.

 

What does the AFA hope to accomplish?

 

Do they think that if Ford stops contributing to gays, and gay people will run out of money and become straight? Perhaps that if Ford cancels ads, then gays will not be able to publish thier "propagana"!!

 

All Ford has done is side with intolerance and prejudice.

 

Yes, it's a fine line they walk. Hatfeild and McCoy as one of those articles put it. But Ford should have held pat. The press the matter gained would have backfired on the AFA, and rendered them moot. Now the AFA are empowered, gays have been told they are second class citizens, and Ford looks like a corporate wuss.

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ZanatWork

ZanatWork

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Posted (edited)

It's not too late to salvage this.

 

Hey, Ford...find that missing gonad and take out a series of ads decrying the AFA's tactics, and make a strong statement about standing with ALL Ford's customers!

 

Make a domestic look strong, even for just a moment! It'd make a lovely constrast to specualtions of 30,000 unemployed and 10 plants down!

Edited by ZanatWork
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ehaase

ehaase

Posted
Posted
Do they think that if Ford stops contributing to gays, and gay people will run out of money and become straight? Perhaps that if Ford cancels ads, then gays will not be able to publish thier "propagana"!!

Does Ford contribute to evangelical or right-wing organizations? I doubt it, although I don't subscribe to any of these publications.

 

Here is an article published yesterday, which may help explain why evangelicals are getting involved in these type of issues. (As for me, a Southern Baptist, I think that the AFA and Moral Majority hurt evangelicals more than help them.)

 

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22215

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NickF1011

NickF1011

Posted
Posted
So.

 

Volvo will continue to target gay and lesbian consumers overtly, FoMoCo will continue to offer benefits to gay and lesbian employee partners, and this is a win for the AFA?

 

Hmmf.

 

Sounds like nobody got what they wanted.

 

Ford essentially stopped doing something that probably wasn't working very well to begin with (targeted advertising of LR products to gays), and cut back on Jaguar advertising (which they were probably going to do anyway), and wrapped it up in a nice neat little bundle and gave it to the AFA as an early Christmas present.

 

I'm guessing that they're going to keep targeting GLBTs with Volvo because it works, and they've stopped advertising Jags and LRs because it doesn't.

 

Had Ford rolled back benefits programs, or had Ford spokesmen publicly criticized GLBT lifestyles, that would be one thing; this is just business.

 

...

 

I think that probably summed it up the best. Let's face it. This issue is already yesterday's news. I doubt anyone in the mainstream media ever makes another mention of it a week from now. Out of sight, out of mind. Ford was doing some housecleaning and hoped this would kind of get swept under the rug. It made some news, but it's hardly anything apocolyptic in scale.

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MyBlueOval

MyBlueOval

Posted
Posted
Does Ford contribute to evangelical or right-wing organizations? I doubt it, although I don't subscribe to any of these publications.

 

Here is an article published yesterday, which may help explain why evangelicals are getting involved in these type of issues. (As for me, a Southern Baptist, I think that the AFA and Moral Majority hurt evangelicals more than help them.)

 

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22215

 

This article is mainly about abortion which I don't think is any business that should be addressed

by the Surpeme Court or any political party.

 

I think that probably summed it up the best. Let's face it. This issue is already yesterday's news. I doubt anyone in the mainstream media ever makes another mention of it a week from now. Out of sight, out of mind. Ford was doing some housecleaning and hoped this would kind of get swept under the rug. It made some news, but it's hardly anything apocolyptic in scale.

 

 

I'm so glad we have some intelligent posters here.

 

So.

 

Volvo will continue to target gay and lesbian consumers overtly, FoMoCo will continue to offer benefits to gay and lesbian employee partners, and this is a win for the AFA?

 

Hmmf.

 

Sounds like nobody got what they wanted.

 

Ford essentially stopped doing something that probably wasn't working very well to begin with (targeted advertising of LR products to gays), and cut back on Jaguar advertising (which they were probably going to do anyway), and wrapped it up in a nice neat little bundle and gave it to the AFA as an early Christmas present.

 

I'm guessing that they're going to keep targeting GLBTs with Volvo because it works, and they've stopped advertising Jags and LRs because it doesn't.

 

Had Ford rolled back benefits programs, or had Ford spokesmen publicly criticized GLBT lifestyles, that would be one thing; this is just business.

 

Right on Mr. Jensen!

 

...

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lauraleez

lauraleez

Posted
Posted
So.

 

Volvo will continue to target gay and lesbian consumers overtly, FoMoCo will continue to offer benefits to gay and lesbian employee partners, and this is a win for the AFA?

 

Hmmf.

 

Sounds like nobody got what they wanted.

 

Ford essentially stopped doing something that probably wasn't working very well to begin with (targeted advertising of LR products to gays), and cut back on Jaguar advertising (which they were probably going to do anyway), and wrapped it up in a nice neat little bundle and gave it to the AFA as an early Christmas present.

 

I'm guessing that they're going to keep targeting GLBTs with Volvo because it works, and they've stopped advertising Jags and LRs because it doesn't.

 

Had Ford rolled back benefits programs, or had Ford spokesmen publicly criticized GLBT lifestyles, that would be one thing; this is just business.

 

...

 

 

Absolutely and very well said. Ford should not have backed down from this issue though. They should have, as another post states, told the world, publicly, what these extremists and terrorists, were trying to do. Hard to believe Ford would bend to these people when they have Melissa Etheridge on the Ford website. It makes them look so hypocritical, when they could have shown how they stand up for their customers human rights.

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ZanatWork

ZanatWork

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We'll see if it's news...but it is regrettable in the very least, and a D-minus for Ford's leadership.

 

What a huge missed opportunity this is-Ford could've stood up to an obvious hate-oriented group, been a media darling for showing backbone in hard times, and likely gained serious points in the perception game.

 

Blown, and pissant knuckling under is what we get instead.

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lauraleez

lauraleez

Posted
Posted

FORD STATEMENT ON DIVERSITY AND ADVERTISING

 

 

 

Dearborn , Mich. , Dec. 7 – Ford's commitment to diversity as an employer and corporate citizen remains unchanged. We have employment policies that are second to none regarding our commitment to inclusion. Any suggestion to the contrary is just plain wrong.

 

 

Advertising decisions for all our brands are driven strictly by a business case, including Volvo, which has decided to market directly to the gay and lesbian community.

 

 

 

Dec 7, 2005

 

 

 

 

This was taken from the Ford Canada website news releases.

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