Lowe’s, a national hardware chain pulled its advertising from a planned reality show that depicts the lives of Muslims in America after folding under pressure from family groups.
Retail giant Lowe’s announced Friday that it would not be advertising during the TLC show titled All-American Muslim, which premièred in mid-November.
This decision came after a conservative group, the Florida Family Association, released a statement urging companies to drop their scheduled advertisements because the show threatens the group’s beliefs.
‘All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law,’ the Florida Family Association statement read.
‘The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to the liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.’
The show is based in Dearborn, Michigan, follows the lives of a number of Muslim families. One of the stars is a police officer, another a football coach, and the show chronicles their family’s daily lives.
‘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,’ the Florida Family Association said on its website.
The group emailed companies that advertised during the first episode of the series on November 13, and claims that 65 of those companies did not run further advertisements during later episodes. They list those companies on the group’s website and they include McDonalds, Ikea, and General Motors.
As for Lowe’s, a company representative emailed the family group saying that they would not be advertising on the program because of the subject matter.
‘While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC, there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe’s advertising guidelines, including the show you brought to our attention. Lowe’s will no longer be advertising on that program,’ the email read.
Lowe’s spokesman Katie Cody clarified, insisting that the reason why they stopped their ads was not solely the Florida Family Association.
‘We understand the program raised concerns, complaints, or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show,’ she said.
‘It is certainly never Lowe’s intent to alienate anyone,’ she continued.
In spite of the controversy, the channel assured viewers that they will not be changing their scheduled line-up anytime soon.< /font>
‘There are no plans to pull the show. The show is going to continue as planned,’ said TLC spokesman Laurie Goldberg.
Read more at Daily Mail.