Detroit – Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday that its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands will no longer advertise in gay publications. The nation’s second- largest automaker denied that it made the decision under pressure from conservative Christian groups.
“The decisions with regard to advertising was a business decision,” Ford spokesman Mike Moran said. He said Ford’s Volvo brand would continue advertising in gay publications.
Ford has not advertised its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands in those publications, Moran added.
Moran said Jaguar and Land Rover, which are part of Ford’s money-losing Premier Automotive Group, have decided to cut back on their advertising everywhere because of difficult market conditions
Moran refused to say how much Ford has spent advertising in gay publications such as The Advocate, a biweekly magazine.
Mercedes-Benz, a division of DaimlerChrysler AG, was advertising on the Advocate’s website Tuesday.
Ford’s move came nearly a week after the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association canceled a boycott of Ford vehicles that began in May, when the group criticized Ford for being too gay-friendly.
“We are ending the boycott of Ford,” association chairman Donald Wildmon said in a Nov. 30 statement on the group’s website.
“The dealers are basically our kind of people who share many of our concerns,” Wildmon said.
The Human Rights Campaign, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and 17 other gay-rights groups expressed concern that there was a deal between Ford and the AFA to end Ford’s advertising in gay media.
