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 News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
Ford to Run Ads Targeted at Gays, Lesbians
 Tom Incantalupo - Newsday
| | Bill Ford, chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Company, leaves after speaking about driving American innovation at the National Press Club in Washington. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) |
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it would try to ease tensions between it and human rights groups by running corporate ads for all eight of its brands in publications targeted at gays and lesbians.
The ads, to run next year, will include mention of the corporation's Jaguar and Land Rover brands, whose marketing executives' decisions earlier this year to stop advertising in gay-oriented publications had led several human rights organizations to charge that Ford was bowing to pressure from conservatives.
The American Family Association, a group based in Tupelo, Miss., had declared a boycott in May that it lifted last month of Ford products over what the group called Ford's "support for the homosexual marriage movement."
Ford and human rights groups officials met Monday, and Ford chairman Bill Ford issued a statement later in the day saying, "We value all people regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or physical differences."
In a letter Wednesday to seven human rights groups, Joe Laymon, Ford's group vice president for corporate human resources, said the Jaguar and Land Rover moves were strictly business decisions for the allocation of limited advertising dollars and that the corporation's leadership wouldn't reverse them.
"However," Laymon said. "It is clear there is a misconception about our intent."
"As a result, we have decided to run corporate ads in these targeted publications that will include not only Jaguar-Land Rover but all eight of Ford's vehicle brands," he said.
The letter didn't specify the publications or indicate when the ads would begin or how long they would run.
But David Smith, vice president of policy and strategy at the Human Rights Campaign, which is based in Washington and got one of the letters, said he was satisfied with Ford's overall response to his group's concerns.
"Ford's action is an incredibly positive outcome and is a win for equality and fairness," he said. |
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