From the Detroit Free Press, via SHG:
Ford Motor Co., responding to complaints from several gay-rights activists that it had cut Jaguar and Land Rover advertising in gay publications due to pressure from an antigay group, said Wednesday it would instead run corporate-wide ads featuring all of its brands.
GOOD. I am really glad they decided to do that.
The gay-rights groups had demanded Ford reverse its decision and reject any link with a threatened boycott by the American Family Association. The 3-million-member AFA had launched a campaign in June accusing Ford of "extensive promotion of homosexuality," and collected pledges from 110,000 people not to buy Ford vehicles.
Now, Ford sells something like 2.2 million vehicles a year in the U.S., so that 110,000 is about 5% - nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, what percentage of those people 1. were planning on buying a vehicle in the near term while their venom is still fresh, and 2. would have bought a Ford but now said they will buy something else. So let's just say that brings the number down to a quarter of the pledges, or 27,500, or 1.25%. Ford's got bigger problems that that with gas prices and other competitors.
Somehow, I think more than 1.25% of their buyers are gay or lesbian, let's say it's the same demographic as the population as a whole, which is estimated at between 2% - 10%, let's say 4%. Their decision may piss off a bunch of fundies, so add them to a "boycott", and really, it's a wash.
You can read Ford's letter regarding this here.
