Kayak.com pulls ads from TLC's All American Muslim

[pwaldo]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/...181908989.html

In a letter of apology to customers, an executive at Kayak.com, the online travel site, explained the decision to stop advertising on the new reality show.

"When we decided to give our money to TLC for this program, we deemed the show a worthy topic," Robert Birge, Kayak's chief marketing officer, wrote in the letter posted on the site. "When we received angry emails regarding our decision to advertise, I looked into the show more thoroughly."

Birge continued:

The first thing I discovered was that TLC was not upfront with us about the nature of this show. As I said, it's a worthy topic, but any reasonable person would know that this topic is a particular lightning rod. We believe TLC went out of their way to pick a fight on this, and they didn't let us know their intentions. That's not a business practice that generally gets repeat business from us. I also believe that it did this subject a grave disservice. Sadly, TLC is now enjoying the attention from this controversy.

Birge admitted that the "decision comes across as bending to bigotry," and "it also appears that we did not support people who deserve support as people and as Americans."

"For that," he wrote, "I am profoundly sorry."

Birge added: "Mostly, I just thought the show sucked. Based on our dealings with TLC and the simple assessment of the show, I decided we should put our money elsewhere. Apologies again."

[themanishere]

Poor strategic management trying to scapegoat...

[habsheaven]

I guess TLC is living up to their name. I'm "learning" a lot about how disgraceful American businesses can be from this "channel".

[MattDMC]

All of these sponsors dropping the show are actually helping it.

I never even heard of the show until all this controversy started and now that it has started I figured I'd watch it and see what its about. I wonder how many viewers all these dropped sponsors have resulted in.

Its true there is no such thing as bad publicity.

[duane1969]

Just curious if anyone who is downing Kayak has actually watched the show?

[mrveggieman]

I was flipping through the channels and caught a glimpse of it. I don't like reality tv so I turned the channel after watching a minute or two of it. I will be adding kayak to the list of companies that I don't do business with.

[duane1969]

I don't do business with Kayak to begin with. My point was that the show presents things in a highly controversial manner that is in now way indicative ofthe typical Muslim American. Most businesses do not like to have their company associated with controversial subjects. How many big companies do you see sponsoring "16 and Pregnant" or "The Jerry Springer Show"?

This whole "If you are not pro-Islam then you are anti-Islam" thing is getting out of hand.

[duane1969]

Interesting perspective from a an American Muslim...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...o-boycott.html

[themanishere]

I don't do business with Kayak to begin with. My point was that the show presents things in a highly controversial manner that is in now way indicative ofthe typical Muslim American. Most businesses do not like to have their company associated with controversial subjects. How many big companies do you see sponsoring "16 and Pregnant" or "The Jerry Springer Show"?

This whole "If you are not pro-Islam then you are anti-Islam" thing is getting out of hand.

For me, I was speaking more to how the executive tries to spin it like he never would have even seen any of this coming, as if it was completely outside of the realm of risk assessment and publicity.

Which is just hilarious in my opinion - as if him and his company were victims...

[ensbergcollector]

my question is since advertisers pull their ads on a semi regular basis (this is what decides whether a lot of new shows stay or get cancelled) how does anyone know what reasons companies have for pulling ads. Did anyone check to see if other shows had ads pulled for non-religious reasons?