Lowe's pulls ads from All-American Muslim to avoid controversy, which goes over about as well as you'd expect
Bowing to pressure from conservative Christian group the Florida Family Association, the Lowe’s Home Improvement chain sought to improve America’s home by putting up a nice ideological fence to keep all the Muslims out, specifically by pulling its advertising from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim. The series depicts Muslims as ordinary people who are just trying to live their ordinary lives in Dearborn, Michigan—clearly, a smokescreen o' boredom covering “the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values,” according to the FFA’s email campaign, which followed similar calls for boycotting of both Modern Family and Chaz Bono on Dancing With The Stars for their “attempts to normalize homosexuality,” as well as Campbell’s Soup for its coddling of Islam and “advancement of Sharia law” with its manufacturing of halal soups, which Muslims eat while planning to institute zakat taxes and oppress all the women. And because Lowe’s doesn’t want you to think about people being stoned to death every time you stop by for some caulk, it listened to the FFA and pulled its ads from the show.
Of course, not everyone has the FFA’s gift of divining subtext, and many of them—including numerous vocal celebrities like Russell Simmons, Mia Farrow, and Kal Penn, a California state senator, the thousands of people who have signed a MoveOn.org petition boycotting the store, etc.—believe the withdrawal is nothing more a craven, fear-based caving to one of the most vocal groups of bigots in America. So Lowe’s has thus far issued two apologies—not for withdrawing the ads, but to say they’re sorry that they “managed to make some people very unhappy,” and also for making anyone question their “commitment to diversity and inclusion." You probably spent the day deep in reflection over whether your faith in Lowe's commitment to diversity and inclusion was nothing but a lie. For that, they sincerely apologize.
Unfortunately, Lowe’s says, it was just a business decision necessitated by All-American Muslim becoming “a lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives”—and obviously Lowe’s doesn’t want any controversy, so best to just listen to the loudest and most knee-jerk perspective, just to be safe. That strategy has certainly paid off on the Lowe’s Facebook page, where detractors and supporters alike are currently coming together in a spirited dialogue marked by diversity and inclusion and embodying a variety of perspectives, such as that Lowe’s is guilty of cowardice and racism, and the opposing perspective that the people who believe that obviously hate America and will be sorry when the “Mooslems” rape and/or kill them. So, lots of perspectives there.