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ANDREW KEEGAN
Friday, December 09, 2005
Ford Motor Co. issued a statement Monday night after meeting with gay leaders that reaffirms the automaker's commitment to diversity but stops short of reversing its decision to pull advertising from gay publications.
"We value all people regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and cultural or physical differences," Bill Ford, chair and CEO of Ford, said in the statement. "This is a historical commitment of the Ford Motor Company that I intend to carry forward."
The company announced its decision to stop advertising its Land Rover and Jaguar brands in the gay press soon after two Ford executives met in Tupelo, Miss., with representatives from the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group that had threatened a boycott over the issue. After the Tupelo meeting, AFA leaders publicly claimed credit for successfully pressuring the company on its advertising decisions.
The apparent agreement between the American Family Association and Ford prompted a coalition of 19 gay rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, to demand the meeting with Ford executives.
"If there is an agreement with AFA, we expect Ford to disavow it," the groups said in a statement released Dec. 5. "We expect Ford to publicly reaffirm its historic support for our community. And, we expect Ford to meet with LGBT representatives this week to resolve these concerns."
Despite the meeting with gay leaders, Ford did not reverse its decision on the ads, disavow any agreement with the AFA or resolve the concerns raised by the leaders.
The Ford statement did not specifically mention the advertising decisions or its support for gay organizations and events, but also did not back off from its previous public commitments to pull back on both.
"The automotive industry is a highly competitive business," the Ford statement said. "During these budget-tightening times, our brands must make tough choices where to advertise and how to spend limited sponsorship dollars."
Ford will reportedly continue to advertise its Volvo brand in the gay media but will no longer use gay-specific images in those ads.
Neil Giuliano, the GLAAD president, was among the gay leaders who met with Ford and said Monday night he was "shocked and disturbed" by the company's statement.
"The statement from Ford does not begin to address the issues we discussed in our meeting," said Giuliano. "It clearly shows that they do not have an understanding of our positions, nor are they willing to distance themselves, and specifically correct, the statements that have been made by the AFA."
Giuliano said gay leaders asked Ford to continue supporting gay organizations and events, continue using gay-specific imagery in ads for the company's Volvo brand placed in gay media, disavow any deal made with the AFA on any of these points, and commit to continue advertising, at least at some level, the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the gay media. Giuliano called the last issue "a deal-breaker" for the gay rights groups.
He said the Ford representatives verbally agreed to each of the requests, but that the statement failed to adequately address even one of them. He also faulted the company for not specifically mentioning in the statement Monday's meeting in Washington, D.C., with gay leaders or the company's commitment specifically to gay and lesbian consumers.
"They are clearly not reaching out to the LGBT community to try to correct what they led us to believe was a wrong impression" made by the AFA, claiming credit with influencing Ford's business decisions, Giuliano said.
"It's very disappointing and frustrating. It almost feels like we were played."
"This means I have to sell my Land Rover," he added, noting that he expected a significant number of other lesbians and gay men who own Land Rovers or Jaguars to do the same. Giuliano said he had purchased the Land Rover because of Ford's decision to advertise the brand in the gay media.
The Ford statement also did not distance the company from the AFA's subsequent claims that the automaker had bowed to pressure from the anti-gay group. But the statement did include a general denial that its decisions were influenced by anything other than economics.
"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," the statement said. "But only Ford Motor Company speaks for Ford Motor Company. Any suggestion to the contrary is incorrect."
Asked whether he now believes the auto giant did, in fact, cut a deal with the AFA, Giuliano demurred.
"I want to believe Ford, but they need to back up their words with some action."
On Dec. 1, the AFA called off a threatened boycott of Ford Motor Co. after the automobile manufacturer agreed to stop supporting the "homosexual lifestyle," according to Donald Wildmon, chair of the AFA.
"They've heard our concerns," Wildmon said in a statement. "Obviously there are still some small matters of difference, as people will always have, but generally speaking, we are pleased with the results."
Wildmon initially called for a boycott of Ford in June, noting on the AFA's website that "if one looks for the company which has done the most to promote the homosexual lifestyle, it would be hard-pressed to find another that has done more than Ford Motor Company."
The protest was temporarily suspended soon after Jerry Reynolds, the owner of a Ford dealership in Dallas, was alerted to the boycott and grew concerned that it might impact his business.
Reynolds contacted Wildmon, arranged a meeting between the AFA and concerned dealers, and helped broker the suspension of the boycott, Reynolds said in a June interview with the Blade.
"If I can get some top Ford executives to sit down with you and your group, would you suspend the boycott?" Reynolds said he asked Wildmon.
The conservative activists immediately agreed, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the aim of the meeting with Ford was to "see what things most bother [the AFA] and what can be changed to make them happy."
WardsAuto.com, an automobile industry website, reported last week that David Leitch, Ziad Ojakli and other Ford officials met with AFA leaders at the anti-gay group's offices in Tupelo, Miss., on Nov. 29.
Leitch is general counsel and a senior vice president of Ford Motor Co. and Ojakli is vice-president of corporate affairs.
The AFA insisted Ford and all of its brands, which include Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo, refrain from donating to "homosexual social activities," according to the website.
Earlier this year Ford donated $250,000 to the Affirmations Gay & Lesbian Community Center in Detroit.
Additionally, AFA demanded Ford cease all advertising on gay websites and in gay publications.
Ford announced after the meeting that its Jaguar and Land Rover brands would no longer be advertised in gay publications, according to a Dec. 5 report in the New York Times. The company said it had no plans to change the advertising plans for Volvo, the newspaper reported.
But the website that broke the story, Wardsauto.com, reported Dec. 7 that as part of the agreement between AFA and Ford, Volvo ads will be generic and no longer tailored to gay consumers.
The site also reported that Ford agreed not to sponsor any future gay events but told AFA that it would maintain its employee policies against discrimination.
A Ford spokesperson told the Times that the ads were eliminated as a cost-cutting measure.
"As they begin planning their marketing for next year, they've streamlined their budgets," spokesperson Mike Moran told the newspaper.
Bob Witeck, whose Washington, D.C.-based public relations company, Witeck-Combs Communications, was hired by Ford in 2002 to handle the company's advertising to the gay market, said he would not comment on the matter until a later date.
Rivendell Marketing, a New York firm that places ads in gay and lesbian publications across the U.S., said that Ford had spent more than $500,000 with the agency on advertising since January 2004.
"This does not make sense," said Rivendell President Todd Evans. "Why allow a small group to dictate your policy? This just gives gay and lesbian consumers a reason to look elsewhere, and there is a lot to choose from."
Both Leitch and Ojakli have connections to the Bush administration.
According to biographies of the men on Ford's website, Leitch joined the company in April following a stint as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush.
Leitch "advised the president on a variety of legal issues, including issues involving the war on terror, judicial nominations and ethics," the biography states.
Ojakli joined Ford in 2004 after a four-year stint as principal deputy for legislative affairs for Bush. He is credited with assisting in strategy and policy development.
Jay Smith Brown, director of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, said the Ford officials' prior connections to the White House were "interesting."
But "let's not distract from the real issue here, and that's Ford coming clean," he said.
With gay consumers offering more than $600 billion in annual spending power, Ford needs to rethink its position, according to the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
The dollar figure was obtained from a comprehensive survey released this year by Simmons Market Research Bureau, a company that charts consumer spending.
"With a less than stellar financial outlook, we find it absolutely unfathomable that Ford Motor Company will turn its back on an entire segment of American consumers," said Justin Nelson, NGLCC co-founder.
GLAAD had been running a Ford-sponsored promotion on its website since January. Ford would donate up to $1,000 to GLAAD with the purchase of specific Ford vehicles.
On Dec. 6, the promotional link was in the process of being taken down, according to a Chris Bugbee, GLAAD director of marketing and public relations.
Bugbee said the group had no comment other than the statement issued in unity with other gay rights groups.
GLAAD also faces controversy over a $50,000 grant to its leadership council from Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's fifth-largest bank based on assets. The conservative group Focus on the Family announced it would withdraw its assets from Wells Fargo for the bank's support of GLAAD and other gay groups, the Associated Press reported.
In 2003, on the heels of Diversity, Inc. magazine naming Ford the No. 1 marketer for inclusive campaigns, the corporation's Volvo division announced a new marketing initiative that targeted gay car buyers.
Prior to the new campaign, Volvo ran ads in national gay magazines, but the new campaign marked its first foray into specifically gay ad content. The ads included images of same-sex couples and targeted copy for gay consumers, as well as the logo of the Human Rights Campaign.
The campaign included a promotion in which Volvo donated portions of each car lease and sale to HRC. In addition, Volvo agreed to sponsor a section of Advocate.com that asked visitors to send photos of their family to post online.
"This marketing program is another example of how [Ford] strives to be a leader in diversity marketing, which includes gay, lesbian and bisexual consumers," Jan Valentic, then-vice president of global marketing at Ford, said in a May 2003 interview.
Gay marketing experts called the Volvo campaign "unprecedented" for its imagery, though Subaru and even Ford's own Jaguar division targeted gay car buyers in the past. Subaru used lesbian tennis star Martina Navratilova to reach mainly women, and Jaguar targeted gay men with copy-based witticisms.
Ford has a history of including gays in its marketing mix as well as in its employment policies and work force. In 2000, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler enacted domestic partner benefits for employees.
And in May 2002, Ford lured a former executive out of retirement to help its sales slump, despite his coming out as gay and actively supporting gay organizations after leaving the company in 1995.
Before his rehire as chief financial officer, Allan Gilmour's 34-year career with Ford included stints as vice chair of the board, president of Ford Automotive Group and chief financial officer, controller and president of Ford Motor Credit. Gilmour spoke to the gay Atlanta Executive Network in April 2001.
Gilmour retired from his post as vice chair of Ford on Feb. 1, 2005, and could not be reached this week for comment.
Ford refused to return repeated calls and e-mails for comment.
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