In a statement released yesterday after the company met with the leadership of several national gay and lesbian
organizations in Washington D.C., Ford made its commitment to inclusion clear stating, “We value all people –
regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and cultural or physical differences.” The meeting and
subsequent statement are in response to media frenzy surrounding Ford’s decision to pull Jaguar and Land Rover
advertising money from gay publications immediately following a meeting with a conservative group called the American
Family Association.
Word is that the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay civil rights lobbying group,
along with other gay and lesbian leadership,
demanded Ford repudiate its
ties with the AFA and reinstate its advertising of Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford supposedly responded by asking for 24-48
hours to get back to them with an answer. Ford makes no mention of this arrangement in its statement and officially is
standing by its business decision to pull advertising of Jaguar and Land Rover from these publications. Furthermore
Ford has not denounced its ties with the AFA, but rather stated in its release “Ford Motor Company is always willing to
engage in constructive conversation with those interested in our policies, even with those who don’t always agree with
them.”
We’ll see what happens on Wednesday when Ford is rumored to have a response ready for the gay and lesbian leadership
it met with yesterday. If the Blue Oval doesn’t budge the gay community may respond with protests, boycotts and even
t-shirts, the same tactics threatened by the AFA that reportedly led to this PR fiasco in the first place.
[Source: Ford and AMERICAblog]
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