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thecosmicdanceOne big complaint they had was that it wasn't fair for people to boycott a private business for the private beliefs of its owner. Except, conservative Christians are sort of known for doing that to everyone else.
Not all conservative Christians boycott all the same things at once, but there’s always something. Most of the campaigns are spearheaded by The American Family Association and/or The Family Research Council. Boycotts in the last thirty years have included:
General Mills . For hiring gay people. Starbucks, Ford, Macy’s and Home Depot for hiring gay people or putting out ads featuring gay people acting like normal humans.
Google. I don’t know how you boycott a search engine, although I suppose you could boycott any tangible products they make or refuse to buy stock. Even the guy who came up with the idea to boycott Google admits it wouldn’t be easy.
JC Penney. For hiring one of America’s most popular PG rated talk show hosts/family friendly comediennes as the spokeswoman for their new ad campaign. The Christianists seem to believe that Penney’s did this because Ellen DeGeneres is married to a woman, and not because she’s built up a lot of good will with the American public. They seem to believe that Penney’s is doing this to court the gay customer. But since Penney’s has never, to my knowledge, had much of an anti gay reputation in the first place, I’m baffled as to why they thought gay people were avoiding the place. Unless they buy into the stereotype that gay men are too fashionable to set foot in a mid price suburban mall department store and lesbians couldn’t pick out a good dress to save their lives because they buy their wardrobes at sporting goods stores. Although, since they seem to buy heavily into stereotypes, maybe they really did think JC Penney had no gay customers. And you can certainly buy athletic clothes at Penney's.
Girl Scouts of America. Christians threatened this century old women’s social network because and I quote Tony Perkins, “There are plenty of politics behind that box of Thin Mints, and you should know what they are before you go buying one. As sweet as the girls are, a lot of that cookie dough goes to straight to the group's political agenda. When they aren't partnering with Planned Parenthood, they're promoting sexual "diversity." Last year, the Girl Scouts decided to admit boys who dress as girls.” I believe the issue was over admitting transgender kids, and in that case, they’re not “boys who dress as girls”, they’re girls. Period. And their "political agenda" involves making girls feel better about themselves because they have the skills to make them more successful adults and better, more considerate people.
Girls Inc. Because, in the midst of all the lessons this young women’s educational program offers on things like checkbook balancing and how to dress for a job interview, they also talk about birth control sometimes. The AFA called them a “pro abortion, pro lesbian group”. I hate to break the news to them, but almost any organization consisting mostly of women, with the goals of helping and educating women and celebrating what’s great about being a girl, is going to have lesbians in it. In fact, lesbians have usually been on the front lines of every important step forward in women’s rights. Hmm…I guess they know that, which is yet another reason feminists are repugnant to them, feminist= approves, at least on some level, of lesbians.
American Girl. They make toys, educational materials and craft supplies for little girls. They were boycotted because they made the mistake of sponsoring the Girls Inc I CAN program (the thing that set off the aforementioned birth control controversy). A Christian dollmaker came out with a faith based alternative, based on the Elsie Dinsmore books. The dolls are actually beautifully made, come with some nice stuff, cover periods AG didn’t at the time, and the books were judiciously edited to be more palatable to a late 90s/00s customer base. They gave the African American character a far more prominent and proactive role than she originally had. But they went out of business last year. The official explanation was the economy. But maybe it was really that nobody could afford to collect both A Life of Faith and AG…and there was no real reason to give up AG. Not without explaining to your child what birth control is and why they can’t have any, and have to carry this weird other doll around when all their friends have American Girl.
Disney, the world’s most popular and powerful creator of family friendly entertainment, thinks that gay couples are also families and should be able to visit a Disney theme park without being harassed. Christianists have periodically find other things Disney does that upset them, but the boycotts never last long.
Proctor and Gamble. The soap manufacturing giant was boycotted because people thought their logo looked “Satanic” and constructed elaborate conspiracy theories about the Devil worship the company’s board was involved in. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world…it needed more deodorant? Now they’re in trouble for, you guessed it, making a corporate decision to acknowledge that gay people are human beings who deserve human rights. The American Family Association also encouraged boycotts of McDonalds and Walmart (yeah, I’m sure that went over real well) for…I don’t know, does it even matter? '
Other boycotts have included Oreo Cookies (for the rainbow Oreo incident) , DC and Marvel and Archie Comics (for introducing gay characters), Toys R US, Urban Outfitters, Pepsi, Abercrombie& Fitch, Blockbuster Video, Carl’s Jr, Clorox, Hallmark, Kraft Foods, S.C Johnson, Microsoft, American Airlines, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Comcast, Crest, MTV, Kmart, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, Pampers, Ikea, Tide, Target, Sears, Campbell’s Soup, Waldenbooks and 7-Eleven. Some were about pornography, or “insulting Christianity”, or for failing to acknowledge Christmas enough (really, they boycotted The Gap for not mentioning Christmas in a holiday ad). But the majority are about homosexuality and birth control.
Except a recent furor over a Dr.Pepper ad that parodied popular evolutionary imagery.
Not all conservative Christians boycott all the same things at once, but there’s always something. Most of the campaigns are spearheaded by The American Family Association and/or The Family Research Council. Boycotts in the last thirty years have included:
General Mills . For hiring gay people. Starbucks, Ford, Macy’s and Home Depot for hiring gay people or putting out ads featuring gay people acting like normal humans.
Google. I don’t know how you boycott a search engine, although I suppose you could boycott any tangible products they make or refuse to buy stock. Even the guy who came up with the idea to boycott Google admits it wouldn’t be easy.
JC Penney. For hiring one of America’s most popular PG rated talk show hosts/family friendly comediennes as the spokeswoman for their new ad campaign. The Christianists seem to believe that Penney’s did this because Ellen DeGeneres is married to a woman, and not because she’s built up a lot of good will with the American public. They seem to believe that Penney’s is doing this to court the gay customer. But since Penney’s has never, to my knowledge, had much of an anti gay reputation in the first place, I’m baffled as to why they thought gay people were avoiding the place. Unless they buy into the stereotype that gay men are too fashionable to set foot in a mid price suburban mall department store and lesbians couldn’t pick out a good dress to save their lives because they buy their wardrobes at sporting goods stores. Although, since they seem to buy heavily into stereotypes, maybe they really did think JC Penney had no gay customers. And you can certainly buy athletic clothes at Penney's.
Girl Scouts of America. Christians threatened this century old women’s social network because and I quote Tony Perkins, “There are plenty of politics behind that box of Thin Mints, and you should know what they are before you go buying one. As sweet as the girls are, a lot of that cookie dough goes to straight to the group's political agenda. When they aren't partnering with Planned Parenthood, they're promoting sexual "diversity." Last year, the Girl Scouts decided to admit boys who dress as girls.” I believe the issue was over admitting transgender kids, and in that case, they’re not “boys who dress as girls”, they’re girls. Period. And their "political agenda" involves making girls feel better about themselves because they have the skills to make them more successful adults and better, more considerate people.
Girls Inc. Because, in the midst of all the lessons this young women’s educational program offers on things like checkbook balancing and how to dress for a job interview, they also talk about birth control sometimes. The AFA called them a “pro abortion, pro lesbian group”. I hate to break the news to them, but almost any organization consisting mostly of women, with the goals of helping and educating women and celebrating what’s great about being a girl, is going to have lesbians in it. In fact, lesbians have usually been on the front lines of every important step forward in women’s rights. Hmm…I guess they know that, which is yet another reason feminists are repugnant to them, feminist= approves, at least on some level, of lesbians.
American Girl. They make toys, educational materials and craft supplies for little girls. They were boycotted because they made the mistake of sponsoring the Girls Inc I CAN program (the thing that set off the aforementioned birth control controversy). A Christian dollmaker came out with a faith based alternative, based on the Elsie Dinsmore books. The dolls are actually beautifully made, come with some nice stuff, cover periods AG didn’t at the time, and the books were judiciously edited to be more palatable to a late 90s/00s customer base. They gave the African American character a far more prominent and proactive role than she originally had. But they went out of business last year. The official explanation was the economy. But maybe it was really that nobody could afford to collect both A Life of Faith and AG…and there was no real reason to give up AG. Not without explaining to your child what birth control is and why they can’t have any, and have to carry this weird other doll around when all their friends have American Girl.
Disney, the world’s most popular and powerful creator of family friendly entertainment, thinks that gay couples are also families and should be able to visit a Disney theme park without being harassed. Christianists have periodically find other things Disney does that upset them, but the boycotts never last long.
Proctor and Gamble. The soap manufacturing giant was boycotted because people thought their logo looked “Satanic” and constructed elaborate conspiracy theories about the Devil worship the company’s board was involved in. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world…it needed more deodorant? Now they’re in trouble for, you guessed it, making a corporate decision to acknowledge that gay people are human beings who deserve human rights. The American Family Association also encouraged boycotts of McDonalds and Walmart (yeah, I’m sure that went over real well) for…I don’t know, does it even matter? '
Other boycotts have included Oreo Cookies (for the rainbow Oreo incident) , DC and Marvel and Archie Comics (for introducing gay characters), Toys R US, Urban Outfitters, Pepsi, Abercrombie& Fitch, Blockbuster Video, Carl’s Jr, Clorox, Hallmark, Kraft Foods, S.C Johnson, Microsoft, American Airlines, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Comcast, Crest, MTV, Kmart, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, Pampers, Ikea, Tide, Target, Sears, Campbell’s Soup, Waldenbooks and 7-Eleven. Some were about pornography, or “insulting Christianity”, or for failing to acknowledge Christmas enough (really, they boycotted The Gap for not mentioning Christmas in a holiday ad). But the majority are about homosexuality and birth control.
Except a recent furor over a Dr.Pepper ad that parodied popular evolutionary imagery.
