Another swing
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‘Gay agenda,’ racy ads push hot buttons
The reasons for each boycott vary in the details, but the companies’ alleged zeal to push the “homosexual agenda” is a common theme, side by side with their sponsorships of television programs the AFA finds morally unacceptable.

There is plenty to go after, and the AFA has aimed its guns at so many companies that even it has trouble keeping track, Sparks acknowledged in an interview. There are so many letter-writing campaigns, in fact, that sometimes the AFA finds itself working against itself.

For example, the organization in mid-May blitzed Wal-Mart for approving a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender affinity group for its employees, shortly after it lavishly praised Wal-Mart for matching donations to the Salvation Army over Christmas. In December, the AFA was praising Wal-Mart as a place where “Sam Walton’s legacy still remains in the minds and hearts of his company”; by April, it was urging Christians to consider taking their business elsewhere.

Other Christian organizations have tried similar tactics; most recently, a minister in suburban Seattle claimed credit for a decision by Microsoft Corp. to withdraw its support for a bill that would have extended Washington state’s anti-discrimination laws to gays and lesbians, a claim Microsoft rejected. (MSNBC is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC.)

But there is no other organization quite like the AFA, which in the past has taken on Crest toothpaste, Volkswagen, Tide detergent, Clorox bleach, Pampers, MTV, Abercrombie & Fitch, K-Mart, Burger King, American Airlines and S.C. Johnson & Son, makers of Windex, Ziploc, Pledge, Glade and Edge.

The current campaign against NutriSystem reveals how much the AFA relishes the battle. The company’s sin is to have aired a television ad that the AFA found “offensive and tasteless,” and to whet its followers’ appetite for battle, the AFA spares no detail in describing just how offensive and tasteless the ad is:

“A woman in black panties, bra, and high heels, is pushing a shopping cart through a supermarket aisle,” the AFA says in an Action Alert on its Web site. “A man stocking items seems to be lusting after her, as she pauses in front of him (shown from side angle). They zoom in on her stomach as the stocker glances up and down at her torso with a lustful smile. The panties are very low cut, [and] as she walks away it is in slow motion.”

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