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Ads pulled from All-American Muslim

Jill

Bowing to right-wing pressure, dozens of advertisers have pulled their ads from the TLC show All-American Muslim because… Muslims, I guess? I’ve only seen the show once, and it’s basically what you’d expect: A reality show about a bunch of Muslim people in Michigan. And being that there are a lot of Muslims in the U.S., and a large concentration of Muslims specifically in Dearborn, there are a bunch of different kinds of Muslim people featured on the show. One dude really loves football. One woman is a hot blond who wants to open a nightclub, but her traditional mother isn’t having it. One woman wears a headscarf but is best friends with the hot blond. In other words, like the vast majority of the millions of Muslims in the world, the folks on the show have interests and hobbies and friendships and lives that do not in fact involve being terrorists; they are human beings who, shockingly, do not construct their entire existences around their religion. They are human beings who live out their belief systems differently, just like human beings who follow every other religion everywhere. But that’s a problem, I guess? Because here’s what the Florida Family Association had to say about it:

Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.

…sure ok.

Anyway, the companies who pulled their ads include Lowe’s, Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart. So many don’t give your money to those companies this holiday season? Or call Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock at (704) 758-2084 or Executive Support Mr. Andrew Kilby at (866) 900-4650 and let them know what you think about this decision (keep it respectful, please).

76 thoughts on Ads pulled from All-American Muslim

  3. So basically they’re saying “We don’t like this show because we LIKE our stereotypes, thankyouverymuch and we won’t stand for people trying to undermine our xenophobia”

    The concept sounds similar to Little Mosque on the Prairie (which is a sitcom rather than a reality series). I didn’t think the series was that good, but I did appreciate that the jokes didn’t seem to be aimed at muslims per se, but that people are fully capable of being ridiculous no matter their religious background. Mind you I didn’t want many episodes because I didn’t find it that funny, from a writing and acting standpoint.

  4. they are human beings who, shockingly, do not construct their entire existences around their religion.

    No wonder the Florida Family Association doesn’t like it.

    I’ve been not watching the show because it looks platitudinous, but I guess there are people to whom even the platitudes are controversial.

  5. Everything seems so downright ordinary here. If there were any instances of true extremism present, then I’d understand right-wing reservations. But I just don’t see them.

    I saw on MSNBC or CNN recently that Islam is seen favorably by only 26% of the American people. There was a time before September 11, 2001, where most people didn’t even know or care. I remember I took a class on Islam my senior year of high school; I learned aspects of the religion and culture which most Americans were clueless.

    Now, a few terms about Islam are thrown regularly about as though they demonstrate some sort of simplified proficiency. Islam contains many complications and lots of people have no desire to see the humanity behind it. As a nation, we’re still largely ignorant, but we somehow think that a bastardized version of the truth is all we need to know.

  7. Comrade, if they portrayed all Muslims as extremists, conservatives would be cheering. They are *afraid* of TV humanizing Muslims. They rely on ignorance to perpetuate stereotypes.

  8. I saw the show had good numbers of viewers in its debut, but what about the next weeks?

    Not that I want to give those cowardly corporations cover, but I’d like to see the numbers to see if there was a business decision as well as a cowardly one. I know if I was a PR hack for a company that made such a decision, that’s the first thing I’d point toward.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t found the numbers. Based on the Lowe’s comment, neither did they.

  9. I wonder what would happen if an atheist/civil liberties group asked companies to pull their ads from the Duggars’ show or Sister Wives or something.

    P.S. I don’t really wonder. I know what would happen. Nothing.

  10. I’ve long learned that any organization that uses the word “family” in its name is staffed by hateful, cowardly people with a hateful, cowardly agenda.

  12. People are so stupid/horrible it hurts sometimes. What the heck people? Little Mosque on the Prairie has been on for a few years now and I don’t think there’s been a dramatic upswing in terrorist activites. I doubt we’d see different results with a reality tv show.

  13. Alison: I wonder what would happen if an atheist/civil liberties group asked companies to pull their ads from the Duggars’ show or Sister Wives or something.
    P.S. I don’t really wonder. I know what would happen. Nothing.

    Pretty much, though the stench of their rotten double-standards are still quite cloying.

  14. Possible reasons these companies pulled their ads:

    -That one guy likes football! He likes it so much he sometimes prioritizes it over other things! That promotes terrible family values! (Also terrorism!)

    -Some of them cover their heads! That reminds us of 9/11 and makes us sad!

    -Some of them don’t cover their heads! This is really confusing because how are we supposed to be able to tell who the terrorist are if they don’t all look the same?

    -Because terrorism!

  16. I just created a petition on change.org asking Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock to reinstate his commercials, and set an example for the rest of the companies listed.

    Please sign and share!

  17. Pingback: Right-wing Activists Get Companies To Pull Ads From All-American Muslim

  18. I have no objection to pulling advertising dollars from a show that promotes an irrational superstition like Islam. So Lowe’s decision is correct in its result, if not its motive. When calling the company, you should object to its sponsorship of any show which portrays the superstitions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any faith as acceptable beliefs systems. They are all the enemy of reason.

    There is no middle ground, no room for “tolerance.” In fact, tolerance is irrelevant. Every religion is “intolerant” to the event that it declares that atheism is false; and atheism is intolerant to the extent that it declares religion false. The question is merely one of truth. To call Lowe’s and demand that they sponsor one brand of insidious falsehood because it sponsors others does not solve any problem, it merely aggravates it. It’s like demanding that they sponsor a documentary that promotes the theory that the moon landing was staged because they previously sponsored a documentary about the prophecies of Nostrodamus.

  20. I’m not surprised Wal-mart pulled out, as they already hate women. I also love that the word “jihad” is now as misused by the media as is the word “retarded” by teenagers. Sad.

  21. With honor killings, battering of women, polygamy and pedophilia accepted as part of their religion, I don’t understand how anyone, let alone feminists can support the acceptance of such behavior and a religion that promotes it.

  22. I’m kinda worried about those Christians. What if there are splinter cells all over America who enact a crusade?!

  23. Kristin A: Sadly, there are, and they are. Anyone heard about that town in Montana that’s been taken over by white supremacists? Frankly, that worries me a lot more then Dearborn does.

    But what do I know, my district elected a Muslim congressman, so clearly, we all hate Americans here and want our congressman to withdraw us from the United States of America and impose Sharia law. Or at least, that’s what this group of clowns would think.
    (There’s a bit of a huge flaw there, as most of the evvilll Muslims here are in no condition to mount an attack. They’re too busy shoveling their walks, bundling up their kids, and dusting off their cars, just like the rest of us. Or in a few cases, just finding out that there is such a thing as 0 degrees.)

  24. Kristin A:
    I’m kinda worried about those Christians. What if there are splinter cells all over America who enact a crusade?!

    You mean like Timothy McVeigh?

    I’d be more worried about having another gimp in the white house. The last one’s “crusade against terrorism” didn’t go very well.

  25. I am.not surprised that Estee Lauder pulled. The owner of Estee Lauder is a very well-known sophisticated neo-con, with political influence and pushed for invasion of Iraq and is now pushing for war with Iran. Estee lauded has been on the boycott and divest movement against Israeli settlements for years now. No Muslim should ever buy Estee Lauder or affiliated products. Their funds directly fund hatred.

    Not surprised by Bank of America or Walmart, either.

  26. My comment is unclear; Estee Lauder is owned by a prominent Zionist family. Estee Lauder has been on the BDS list for many years for supporting settlement in Palestine and funding neocon efforts in the Mideast.

  27. Great. First they had “reverse racism” and now they’re up in arms over “reversed slander.” Waaaah, they’re portraying them NICELY!

    Sad about Lowe’s—they tend to be the good guys in terms of interacting with sales staff while female without being condescended to and dismissed. *eyes Home Depot balefully*

  30. I should clarify– I ask how to verify since according to the linked article in the OP, only Lowe’s has confirmed that they pulled advertising, while another company that the FFA *says* pulled its ads (Amway) said they did not.

  31. If mainstream media produced a show demonstrating that Klan families are just ordinary Americans with a different belief system, I suspect that you all would be calling for an advertisers’ boycott, as with Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck. I’m a descendant of two Islamic lines, and we have an Islamic leasing an adjacent business property. Like fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews, they are polite, they are decent, and they want to return women to chattel status. The boycotters, please listen, are on our side. They are supporting women’s rights, and I do vote with my dollars to support those who empower women.

  33. Angie: Did you notice how each of the two religious groups you referred to were preceded by an adjective? Which is strange, see, because the use of adjectives such as “fundamentalist” and “Orthodox” would suggest that you understand that religions are internally heterogeneous, and yet you appear not to have applied that logic to Islam, a religion practiced by about 1.5 billion people.

  35. @Angie –May I ask why you’re using “Islamic” as a noun for a person, rather than “Muslim”? My experience is that people with your asserted background (relatives who are Muslim) tend to refer to people who belong to Islam as Muslims, not Islamics. Using “Islamic” as a noun for people tends to be something I associate with xenophobic Americans who also use “Illegal” as a noun for people.

  36. Angie, the Klan is not equivalent to the adherents of the second most popular religion on the planet and it is vile that you’ve made that comparison. Secondly, all major religions have issues with women’s rights. This is not singular to Islam. For instance, right here in the United States we’re suffering a major attack on access to reproductive health — not just abortion rights, but contraception itself. There is a group of self-professed Christians in this country who will denounce Islam on one hand, and then turn around and say things like women belong in the home and homosexuals are immoral deviants.

  37. Angie unduplicated: If mainstream media produced a show demonstrating that Klan families are just ordinary Americans with a different belief system, I suspect that you all would be calling for an advertisers’ boycott, as with Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck.

    And if everyday, run-of-the-mill Muslims in the US got together in order to spout misogynist crap, terrorize women, and agitate for laws returning us to the status of chattel, that would be a fine comparison. Given that everyday, run-of-the-mill American Muslims are significantly less harmful to the cause of women’s rights than right-wing Christians, however, I will save my support for companies that pull their advertising dollars from the Duggars’ reality show, because it’s hard for me to see how depicting a Muslim woman who wants to open a nightclub spreads the kind of poisonous ideology that would concern me.

  38. Angie unduplicated: Like fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews, they are polite, they are decent, and they want to return women to chattel status. The boycotters, please listen, are on our side. They are supporting women’s rights, and I do vote with my dollars to support those who empower women.

    I await the outrage from these same people over the misogynist dominionists like the Duggars and the misogynist polygynists in Sister Wives.

    Somehow, I have a feeling that those two shows are different.

  39. @Angie: Do you not think that in the US fundamentalist Christianity is a bigger issue than fundamentalist Muslims?

    Sheelzebub: I await the outrage from these same people over the misogynist dominionists like the Duggars and the misogynist polygynists in Sister Wives.

    I doubt you will get that outrage from the FFA, but you could get some from me if you want (?)

  40. Pingback: Christian Group Manufactures Controversy Over a Muslim Reality Show | Con Games

  41. Norma:
    HowdoesacustomerofBofAgoaboutfindingoutifthisistrue?

    One approach to this question would be to just close your accounts there anywa and take them to a local bank or credit union, since BofA has done plenty of awful stuff, even if they didn’t do this. In fact, I would say this is, in some respects, much less awful than things they had done already, even though this is bad enough.

  42. Pingback: Lowe’s is now considered bigoted and anti-Islamic: Yay for political-correctness run amok! | The Conservative Guild

  43. The boycotters, please listen, are on our side. They are supporting women’s rights, and I do vote with my dollars to support those who empower women.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. The FFA does not support women’s rights; they are a right-wing, bigoted organization that worries obsessively about kids being exposed to the “gay lifestyle.” They may be on your side, but they are certainly not on mine.

  45. A TLC spokeswoman, Laurie Goldberg, said the network could not comment about the alleged advertising defections, but that the show maintained “strong” advertising. “There are no plans to pull the show. The show is going to continue as planned,” said Goldberg. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/companies-pull-ads-from-muslim-reality-tv-show/2011/12/09/gIQANywmiO_story.html)

    That warms my cold, cold heart a little. You have done some things I don’t agree with, TLC (A Wedding Story, eugh), but this is one I totally stand behind.

  46. Actually, Lowe’s and Home Depot are bankrolling the Pearls, so I’m not really surprised by this.

  47. I think a clarification is in order. A lot of the companies mentioned didn’t pull their ads because of the pressure, they chose to not renewed their commitment. While I can’t be sure about the exact reason, it probably has to do with the show’s shitty ratings and is a pretty common practice. Lowes seems to be the only company that bowed to the pressure. The group is claiming credit for the other companies to show off the ‘success’ of their campaign.

    I guess it’s too much to ask these religious fundies for honesty.

  51. Pingback: Lowe’s Knows | Maitri's VatulBlog

  52. I think these critics—including the commenters above who mentioned Islam-based women’s rights abuses in support of the advertisers decision—often have a grain, but just a grain, of truth in what they’re saying. I think most sane people would admit that FGM and the glass-ceiling are not moral equals, while still condemning both. Same with, say, state-sponsored executions of homosexuals vs. the lack of state-sponsored unions for homosexuals. Conservatives often ask us not to confuse the two, that is Christian fundamentalism in America and Islamic fundamentalism abroad. I, more or less, agree with this call for nuance.

    But it seems that their interest in nuance always stops at their own group. That there may also be a difference, both in belief and practice, between the average Muslim living in Dearborn and the cleric in Waziristan is somehow not worth their consideration. I can’t say, as an atheist, that religion is religion, but they can say that a Muslim is a Muslim.

  53. To any of the concern trolls warning us of the looming threat of Islamofascism, I ask you these questions:

    What religion’s adherents have been behind the successful campaigns to eliminate marriage equality in about two dozen US states?

    What religion’s adherents have been steadily chipping away at women’s rights to abortion, contraception, health and sex education in the decades since Roe v. Wade?

    Who perpetrated the terrorist attacks in Oklahoma City and Atlanta, some of the worst attacks this country had seen before 9/11?

    Who was arrested in Tyler, Texas with about half a million rounds of ammunition, automatic weapons, enough sodium cyanide to turn an office building into a multi-story crypt and plans to use all of it against US citizens, but was only sentenced to a little over 11 years for it?

    I’ll give you a little hint, helpful guy that I am: “Muslims” or “Islam” is not the answer. 9/11 was a big hit but it was a lucky shot in the grand scheme of things. Islamic fundamentalists had to kill over 2,000 people to even get noticed in this country and that’s all it managed to do. Policy has not changed in their favor. The US military is hammering at them all over the world instead of backing off. Meanwhile, fundamentalist Christianity in the US is getting just about everything it wants on a silver platter and demanding more. Maybe I’m just silly, but I think the bigger threat is the group that is actually changing policy and making law in the US and not the group that can’t even rent a building without people losing their shit over it.

  54. classical Judaism

    Just to clarify, which period is that supposed to refer to? If you mean, say, 600 BCE, I”m not sure how much anyone really knows about how the religion was actually practiced. If you mean the period of the Roman Empire and after, when the Talmud was being codified, what you’re saying doesn’t bear much resemblance to reality (except for polygamy, which, as I recall, wasn’t technically banned among Jews in the Christian world until the 11th century or so, although it continued to a limited extent among Jews in the Muslim world). In any event, that’s all largely beside the point; I agree with you that the worst aspects of any religion (or its sacred texts, regardless of how they’re applied in practice) hardly constitute any kind of justification for vilifying a TV program that portrays people who belong to that religion as human beings.

    PS: I’m reluctant to bring this subject up, but it seems to me that the Lauders are a prominent Jewish family; it’s a bit much for Lisa to characterize them as a “Zionist” family as if that’s all that any of them is about. Even Ronald Lauder, who’s very far from my favorite person in the world because of his Republican politics and his right-oriented political views on Israel, broke with Netanyahu earlier this year over the latter’s insistence on preconditions to negotiations. If he’s pushed for war with Iran, that’s awful if it’s true, and I’d be curious to see where he did so. Then again, I always thought most of his contributions were to art museums and things like the Ronald Lauder Foundation, which supports marginalized Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe, and has nothing to do with Israeli politics.

    I’d like to know the company’s reasons for pulling its advertising, which is awful too. But since when does Ronald Lauder have any involvement in running that company? That was a very long time ago. It’s the entire Lauder family that still owns the majority of the company, not simply him. Ronald Lauder isn’t even on the Board of Directors, let alone part of corporate governance. So I’d be amazed if he had anything to do with the decision to pull the advertising (or the decision to run it in the first place, for that matter). The attempt to portray Estee Lauder as “his” company, then, seems misleading. If anyone wants to stop buying Estee Lauder products because of the advertising decision, more power to you, but I’m not sure how much Ronald Lauder, specifically, should enter into it.

    As far as people like his brother Leonard Lauder (who did run the company as its Chief Executive until he retired), and Evelyn Lauder (Leonard’s wife, who died just last month) are concerned, I guess one would need to start boycotting the Whitney Museum and anything to do with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Because that’s what they’re known for.

  55. @ Seth Eag, did you mean to imply FGM is an Islamic religous practice? It reads that way in your post. FGM is a cultural practice, not a religious one, which predates Islamic traditions by many centuries. Which underscores how easily hateful rhetoric can create negative impressions on us of people and lives we don’t know.

    (None of which should be interpreted as any kind of defense of FGM, which is a global health crisis affecting 100+ million women and girls. Incidentally, FGM is not unknown in the West and was done to marginalized women as a cure for hysteria, among other things.)

  56. @IrishUp Apologies, you’re right, I wasn’t clear. Islam doesn’t have anything to say about FGM. I was attempting to compare differences in culture—not necessarily religions—and how most of us would agree that not all cultural differences are equal. Religious texts per se are rarely the problem, as we generally tend, as a society, to decide what doctrines we will follow and what we will ignore based on economics, education, etc.

  58. Seth Eag: I think most sane people would admit that FGM and the glass-ceiling are not moral equals, while still condemning both.

    Shit, I didn’t even have to ask. YOU versus US, right? Got it.

  60. MertvayaRuka: Maybe I’m just silly, but I think the bigger threat is the group that is actually changing policy and making law in the US and not the group that can’t even rent a building without people losing their shit over it.

    Oh, it’s not even a matter of renting; they *bought* the old Burlington Coat Factory and the whole mishegoss was over their application for approval from the Landmarks Commission for the proposed renovation.

    All the cries of “sacred ground” during that whole business amused the fuck out of me, since the center is right next to a dive bar that serves really great onion rings.

  61. LOL Maybe some privileged asshat would care to graciously explain?

    That FGM comparison is no different from “I understand why someone would be concerned about Shari’ah Law seeping into the US because THAT IS WHAT AMERICAN MUSLIMS WANT.”

  63. Seth Eag: I think these critics—including the commenters above who mentioned Islam-based women’s rights abuses in support of the advertisers decision—often have a grain, but just a grain, of truth in what they’re saying. I think most sane people would admit that FGM and the glass-ceiling are not moral equals, while still condemning both.

    There is a grain of truth… because FGM?

    What am I misinterpreting?

  64. Nahida:LOL Maybe some privileged asshat would care to graciously explain?

    Sure; if you’d like. I take Seth’s point to be that (i) although some common Muslim-American values and traditions regarding homosexuality, the role of women, etc. are problematic from a progressive/feminist perspective, that obviously implies no equivalence or connection with the truly abhorent practices of groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and (ii) conservative Christian groups that suggest otherwise are being hypocritical in light of their own frequent calls for “nuance” and against false equivalency whenever comparisons are made between their behavior and that of other religious groups.

    All clear now?

  65. I can’t believe that Sears – which is in danger of going under in the next few years – has the nerve to pull ads from anywhere!

  66. Pingback: United States of Islamophobia | Greased Cartridge

  67. Anyway, the companies who pulled their ads include Lowe’s, Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart.

    But have all of those companies really pulled their ads? The article says that the FFA “contends that” those companies pulled their ads because of its influence. Lowe’s has the been the only one to come forward and say that it’s true. Amway, apparently one of the 65 companies FFA claimed to have influenced, called bullshit.
    Unfortunately (fortunately?), someone crashed the FFA site so I couldn’t get the full list.

  68. NPR reported that Home Depot and Pernod-Ricard have denied canceling their ads.

    (Sorry, there’s only audio for that report so far–I expect there will be a transcript later today.)

  69. Pingback: New TLC Show "All-American Muslim" - Page 3

  71. From FashionalyEvil’s link, the best comment ever about the FFA’s little project:

    “This is funny and stupid at the same time.” – Imad Hamad, Michigan director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

  72. Just because a company’s ad appeared on one episode and not the next week doesn’t mean they pulled it. Ad buys are often for X number of ads on a network during a given week. The network spreads the ads out among its shows. And, a company could buy network A one week and network B the next. I’m guessing that most of these companies did not make a decision to advertise on the program and, likewise, did not make a decision to not advertise there.

  73. I volunteer at a high school in Dearborn, and the consensus among the (Muslim) kids there is that they hate this show and think the people featured shouldn’t be broadcasting their community for the world to judge. Just saying, objections from the Muslim community itself could be part of the reason advertisers bailed.

  74. just to clear up some confusion, it does seem that at least a few of the advertisers named by the FFA have *not* pulled their ads, and are saying so.
    href=”http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/controversy-drives-advertisers-from-all-american-muslim-or-does-it/?hp”>

  75. Dana, what is the basis of the Muslim community objections? Do they specifically feel it shows them in a bad light, or is it a general keep-your-head-down thing, or unrepresentative, or something else?

  76. Ignorance breeds intolerance, bigotry & misinformation. These negative comments are not the facts, but misinformation of uneducated people which is breeding hatred. It is like a blind man directing a herd of blind horses off a cliff. Some examples for you uneducated people out there that are following your Deaf & blind leaders that think all Muslims are bad & that there groups remarks are what society should follow. 1. All the sexual molestation of kids by Catholic Priest, does that make all Catholics or Priest bad? No, it does not. Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma Federal Building does that make All whites, Militia members & the Michigan Militia group Bad? No, it does not. Nazi’s committed mass murders & genocide, does that make all Germans & Austrians murders? No, it does not. If a few people from one religious group commit a horrible crime against society, mankind, the 10 Commandments, mans law & go against what their Holy book Preaches against, does that make everyone in that Religious group bad or evil? No it does not! If you believe these idiots that are preaching this form of hatred then you are part of the same group of people that need to leave this great country of ours.

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