Ford reverses ad policy

Posted by Lakshmi Chaudhry at 9:43 AM on December 15, 2005.

Finally some good news:

Advertisements featuring Ford Motor Co.'s eight vehicle brands will run in gay publications, the automaker said Wednesday, acting after gay rights groups complained when Jaguar and Land Rover pulled their spots.

Ford is not ordering those luxury brands to resume their specific ads. Rather, the company's ads in the publications will promote all of its lines, which also include Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury, Volvo and Aston Martin. ...

Ford pledged to run corporate ads in the publications that will include the entire Ford lineup.

"It is my hope that this will remove any ambiguity about Ford's desire to advertise to all important audiences and put this particular issue to rest," wrote Joe Laymon, Ford's group vice president for corporate human resources. [AP via CNN]

At the very least, this victory suggests that being a bigot -- or at least being perceived as one -- is bad for business. And the corporate concern about the bottomline will in the end trump their fear of alienating the Christian right.

Lakshmi Chaudhry is a senior editor at In These Times, and the former senior editor of AlterNet. You can write to her at lakshmi@alternet.org.