Ford Caves, Will Resume Ads in Gay Pubs, Risk Boycott by Traditional Family Groups

Two weeks of vociferous criticism from homosexual activists not only succeeded in backing Ford away from its recent decision to restrict advertising some of its products from gay publications but forced the automaker into expanding such marketing efforts and all but begging for forgiveness for being politically incorrect on the issue.

The cave could not be more complete, according to this description in The New York Times:

"Ford's announcement, which gay advocates immediately praised, also included other steps to broaden the automaker's relations with gay consumers and repair damage from the initial decision to stop advertising.
"In a letter Wednesday to gay advocacy groups, Ford said that in addition to its current advertising campaigns in gay media, it would expand the ads to encompass all eight Ford brands.
"Previously, only Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo ran ads in gay publications. Now, the company has said it will advertise its Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda and Aston Martin brands in the gay press.
"'It is my hope that this will remove any ambiguity about Ford's desire to advertise to all important audiences and put this particular issue behind us,' Ford's vice president for corporate human resources, Joe W. Laymon, said in the letter."
Ford's decision two weeks ago to restrict the advertising was widely perceived to be a response to a threatened boycott by the American Family Association, which claims to represent the interests of traditional, heterosexual families. The Times was unable to obtain comment from AFA.

Ford, like numerous Fortune 500 firms in the past decade, set itself up for the present no-win situation, thanks to its past decisions noted by the Times going back more than a decade to provide extensive corporate financial and other support for homosexual advocacy groups and causes.

"It was Ford's support of gay causes that led the American Family Association to call for a boycott. The association cited what it called Ford's 'extensive promotion of homosexuality,' including the company's training in tolerance of gays and ads designed specifically for gay audiences," reported the Times.

Having originally offered support for gay advocacy, Ford took a position bound to antagonize significant elements of the much larger community. But given the politically correct mainstream media's broad and usually unquestioning support of gay causes, it was inevitable that Ford would suffer a massive public relations backlash from trying to retreat from its original decision to back those causes.

All of which just demonstrates yet again that it is folly to market any general consumer market product on the basis of anything other than its intrinsic merits in satisfying customer needs. Adding a political factor to the marketing of non-political products is asking for just such a public relations disaster as Ford is now suffering.

Cross-posted at Tapscott Behind the Wheel.