Advertisers Not "Desperate"
by Kimberly Potts
Oct 20, 2004, 1:00 PM PT
Not everyone is so desperate to be a part of the action on
Wisteria Lane, it seems.
Though the runaway success of campy new Sunday drama Desperate
Housewives has everyone talking comeback for formerly beleaguered,
fourth-place network ABC, some advertisers are saying the show's
sexy content has made them to decide to pack up their ad dollars
and move them to a new address.
Lowe's, Tyson Foods and Kellogg's are among the Housewives
advertisers who have decided not to buy additional commercial
time during the show after their offices were flooded with
complaints from anti-Housewives protesters.
And the rallying group behind the action: the American Family
Association, a self-proclaimed "ministry devoted to the
preservation of traditional family values," and a perennial
thorn in the side of what the group deems inappropriate entertainment.
AFA's special projects editor, Randy Sharp, told CNN/Money that,
within hours of being deluged with the calls and emails, reps from
both Lowe's and Tyson confirmed to AFA that they would no longer
advertise during the show.
"The show is not consistent with our core values, which focus
on operating with integrity and trust in all we do," Tyson
spokesman Gary Michaelson said.
"Our advertising guidelines are such that Lowe's chooses
not to advertise in controversial programming, including programming
with gratuitous sex and violence," Lowe's spokesperson Chris
Ahearn said.
AFA, which also operates the spinoff Websites OneMillionMoms.com,
OneMillionDads.com and OneMillionYouth.com, has also petitioned
other advertisers to boycott Desperate Housewives, including packaged
foods giant ConAgra and Pinnacle Foods (parent company of Swanson frozen foods).
ABC execs have remained mum on the imbroglio, saying they don't
comment on specific advertisers.
But, while AFA's efforts have proved initially successful, the show's
performance suggests that ABC can laugh off any real threat to its ad
revenues, and laugh it off all the way to the bank.
Despite a few drop-outs like Lowe's and Tyson, the demand for spots
during Desperate Housewives, which has already been picked up for
the whole season by ABC, has increased. Last May, during the networks'
annual upfront advertising sales, a 30-second commercial on the show
sold for roughly $150,000. Now, says Advertising Age the asking price
is around $300,000 for the same spot.
And, with the show claiming victory as, far and away, the highest-rated
new series of the season and the third-most watched overall with an
average of 20.8 million viewers, the publicity surrounding AFA's
family-friendly boycott may, ironically, attract even more viewers
to Desperate Housewives' clan of cheating spouses, frisky divorcées
and frazzled moms.
In fact, a 1989 boycott campaign of Fox's raunchy sitcom Married...with
Children by Michigan housewife Terry Rakolta drummed up so much publicity
that several companies that agreed to drop their commercials from the show
later returned as advertisers. And it is widely accepted that the publicity
from the campaign helped boost the show's viewership and ensure its
11-season run on the network.
Meanwhile, memo to ABC: the American Family Association troops are
already rallying for their next target--Life As We Know It, the Kelly
Osbourne high school drama that's based on a risqué British young-adult
novel.
"The show is nothing but sex, sex, sex," AFA's Sharp told
CNN/Money. "We're really looking hard at it."
For potential boycott purposes only, of course.
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