I'm Boycotting Lowe's (NBR)

greeneyed_bride

My friend just sent me the link to an article about Lowe's Home Improvement pulling their advertising from the show "All-American Muslim." (https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lowe-hardware-pulls-ad-all-american-muslim-christrian-group-outcry-faces-outrage-article-1.990214)

Apparently a Christian group in Florida complained about Lowe's advertising during the show, claiming that it is"propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."  so Lowe's decided not to support the show with their advertising anymore. 

As a Christian who teaches writing classes to women who are learning English, I teach many amazing Muslim women. These women face enough discrimination and bigotry without a major U.S. corporation refusing to support a show about Muslims. I sent Lowe's an email letting them know that I won't be supporting their company anymore. If you agree, I urge you to do the same!

PandaMom06

There's also about 60 other companies that have pulled advertising to.

greeneyed_bride

PandaMom06:

There's also about 60 other companies that have pulled advertising to.

Ugh. I just saw that here -  https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hxp7VNbwPZ8xhRF5qVRnLBf0Ti5w?docId=9caf4ea07c3847d8a98edff9838665ca

Seriously, this is making me heart-sick.  

avalovesart

I haven't seen the show, but from the sounds of it I have nothing against it and I, too, am Christian. However, Lowe's is a private business that can choose to market or not market themselves in whatever ways are legally allowed. So...I won't be boycotting them based on this one choice.

lala1608

I'm never shopping there again.  I can't support any company who will let a discriminatory religious group make business decisions for them...it's a shame too, I spend about $500 a month there.

greeneyed_bride

avalovesart:

I haven't seen the show, but from the sounds of it I have nothing against it and I, too, am Christian. However, Lowe's is a private business that can choose to market or not market themselves in whatever ways are legally allowed. So...I won't be boycotting them based on this one choice.

Absolutely it's their legal right. It's also discriminatory. Unless they are choosing not to support shows that portray any religion, they're making their advertising choices based on prejudice against a specific religion. And just like it's their right to do that, it's my right to choose not to support companies that make bigoted decisions.

And of course you're not required to boycott them. I was just sharing so that other people knew and could make their own decisions. 

MesmrEwe

The real question is who put out the press release about it - - Did Lowe's pull the advertising just for the sake of "it's not our target market for the advertising dollar" (TV advertising is expensive and if they aren't getting either product placement or some other financial benefit from the advertising it's not worth their money in a tough economy to advertise there) or was it the groups putting up the stink that put out the press release drawing attention to it...  Like someone else said, about 60 advertisers had pulled their ads, so if Lowes was the only company that people would recognize that's something to factor in too..  I guess my thought is that I wouldn't read more into the advertising pull than a business pulling the ad for that time-slot/ratings/price differential unless there was direct confirmation that it was Lowes that put out the press release along with the reasoning or if it was someone/some other group putting it out to project an image of Lowes...  And in all seriousness, what idiot at a company would put out THAT type of press release and give that sort of reasoning - seriously... 

Granted, I don't shop at Lowes very often, but I certainly wouldn't be boycotting the local business and workers there who have no control over what corporate may/may not do... 

greeneyed_bride

MesmrEwe:

The real question is who put out the press release about it - - Did Lowe's pull the advertising just for the sake of "it's not our target market for the advertising dollar" (TV advertising is expensive and if they aren't getting either product placement or some other financial benefit from the advertising it's not worth their money in a tough economy to advertise there) or was it the groups putting up the stink that put out the press release drawing attention to it...  Like someone else said, about 60 advertisers had pulled their ads, so if Lowes was the only company that people would recognize that's something to factor in too..  I guess my thought is that I wouldn't read more into the advertising pull than a business pulling the ad for that time-slot/ratings/price differential unless there was direct confirmation that it was Lowes that put out the press release along with the reasoning or if it was someone/some other group putting it out to project an image of Lowes...  And in all seriousness, what idiot at a company would put out THAT type of press release and give that sort of reasoning - seriously... 

Granted, I don't shop at Lowes very often, but I certainly wouldn't be boycotting the local business and workers there who have no control over what corporate may/may not do... 

It looks like the Florida Family Association was the one that issued the press release. They were the ones urging companies to pull advertising. And Lowe's wasn't the only company that people would recognize. According to the Florida Family Association, McDonald's and Amazon also pulled theirs. It looks like Lowe's is just the first one to confirm that they pulled their advertising.

greeneyed_bride

The Bump decided to post my comment twice...

lala1608

Lowe's did confirm that they pulled the advertising due to pressure from outside groups.

MesmrEwe

lala1608:

Lowe's did confirm that they pulled the advertising due to pressure from outside groups.

Many companies at the first sign of controversy of any level will pull their advertising as standard operating procedure..  It's a catch 22 - but ultimately their reputation is better spent staying away from the controversy especially when it involves religion and politics...  We had this last year with Target Corp. after they made a campaign contribution to a candidate that some groups didn't support and it was the same situation only another hot-button topic... 

Jen0204

avalovesart:

I haven't seen the show, but from the sounds of it I have nothing against it and I, too, am Christian. However, Lowe's is a private business that can choose to market or not market themselves in whatever ways are legally allowed. So...I won't be boycotting them based on this one choice.

Just out of curiosity, is there anything that would make you boycott a company? Presumably they would only do things that are legal (ie - pull advertising, but not refuse to hire Muslims), so I just find it a little odd to say that you won't boycott something that a company legally does. Of course, if you would never boycott for any reason, that's a different story. 

Personally I think that giving into bigotry and racism and letting it influence their policies is just as bad as thinking that way themselves. 

JaredandKatie

avalovesart:

I haven't seen the show, but from the sounds of it I have nothing against it and I, too, am Christian. However, Lowe's is a private business that can choose to market or not market themselves in whatever ways are legally allowed. So...I won't be boycotting them based on this one choice.

All of this.  Exactly.

NoodleM

MesmrEwe:

lala1608:

Lowe's did confirm that they pulled the advertising due to pressure from outside groups.

Many companies at the first sign of controversy of any level will pull their advertising as standard operating procedure..  It's a catch 22 - but ultimately their reputation is better spent staying away from the controversy especially when it involves religion and politics...  We had this last year with Target Corp. after they made a campaign contribution to a candidate that some groups didn't support and it was the same situation only another hot-button topic... 

I agree. I remember when Dominos pulled all advertising from the first season of Jersey Shore due to pressure from the Italian Anti Defamation League because they felt the show made Italians look bad. 

salt78

I saw this on the Today show this morning and had the same thought. There is a Home Depot right next door to my local Lowe's anyway.

::adds Lowe's to the list right after Chick fil A::

nah82

Not condemning or defending anyone's choices, but I'm sure that there are plenty of big businesses out there who never even considered purchasing advertising during this time slot because they knew it would be controversial and didn't want to go there.  You would have a hard time trying to boycott those businesses.