1) Wrigley Company -- Nasty TV ads aimed at kids
* The edgy new TV ad for Skittles, the popular children's candy…
* Meaning the ad is targeted to children…
* It begins with a young woman kissing a walrus. This is not a peck; it's a moaning make-out session. "What are you doing?" asks another woman who discovers them. "Hey, this isn't what it looks like," says the kissing woman on the couch. "Good, because it looks like you're making out with my boyfriend," the second woman says. The other replies: "This isn't Bobby. It just looks like Bobby."
At least the audience might think the "boyfriend" here might be a human in someone's mind. The walrus never becomes someone else. It remains an ugly, flippered, mustachioed walrus. The kissing girl says of the walrus, "He says he's like these new Skittles Riddles. The colors on the outside don't match the flavors on the inside." She flirts with/teases the walrus with the candy, "You can't have it; you can't have it," before returning to the make-out session.
*The advocacy group One Million Moms launched a campaign protesting the ad to Wrigley, arguing "not only is it disgusting, it is taking lightly the act of bestiality. While the shock value of this ad may draw attention to your product, it is harmful to children."
The Wrigley Company
Martin Radvan, CEO
410 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
2) Starbucks -- Promotion of homosexual marriage
* In January of 2012 Starbucks came out in support of same-sex marriage, saying that it was "core to who we are and what we value as a company." So for those of you who subscribe to the biblical definition of marriage as a committed union between one man and one woman, I certainly hope, that if you must buy overpriced, trendy coffee drinks, you will do so at another shop.
And I'm also hopeful that you will join me and 45,000 others (and counting) who have let Starbucks know about your decision by signing the petition at DumpStarbucks.com.
Startbucks Corporation
Howard D. Schultz, CEO
2401 Utah Ave. South
Seattle, WA 98134
3) Office Depot -- Lady Gaga, promotion of homosexuality
* Another of the recent American business to go out of their way to disparage marriage, sexual sanity and religious values? Office Depot. Yes, Office Depot has joined hands with one of the most polarizing cultural figures of recent times, a singer whose own morality and outrageously poor taste has become infamous -- Lady Gaga.
* Office Depot's specific drive is to sell products connected to Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, an organization that extols the "bravery" of letting people celebrate their personal, philosophic and sexual individuality.
* Our letter? Dear Office Depot,
I was very disappointed to see that your company has partnered with Lady Gaga and her foundation, Born This Way. Why? First of all, Lady Gaga is a remarkably poor role model for America's youth. Even a cursory check of her lifestyle, fashion choices and song lyrics demonstrate an outrageous coarseness and tastelessness. Why would Office Depot choose to partner with such a polarizing figure, a person who has regularly gone out of her way to offend the moral sensitivities of most Americans? What dolt in the Office Depot advertising department okayed that idea?
Secondly, I went to the “Stories of Bravery” on the foundation website, and discovered (no surprise) that most of the testimonies there involved a defense of homosexual practice. Where are the stories of young soldiers going into harm's way? Or the stories of young students resisting peer pressure in order to do well in school academics or sports? What about the young man or woman who holds a job while also working hard in their studies? What about the young person who chooses not to have sex until they are married or the young mother who stood against the pressures of obtaining an abortion when she discovered she was pregnant? What about the young person who takes his/her summer vacation to help others?
No, these kind of stories aren’t included in the foundation website. Instead, they are nearly all about gay identity and gay social practice. The agenda of the foundation couldn't be clearer. Born This Way (and apparently Office Depot) interpret bravery in a very limited, very directive way.
Because Office Depot has made such an elaborate campaign to help promote and fund Lady Gaga's career and the Born This Way foundation, I will be taking my business (which has been substantial over the years) elsewhere.
Office Depot
Neil Austrian, CEO
6600 N. Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33496
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
David Green, CEO
7707 S.W. 44th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73179
Chick-fil-A CARES
P.O. Box 500367
Atlanta, GA 31150
5) Exposing Planned Parenthood and working to remove tax revenue from going to this abortion conglomerate.
Issue in a Nutshell:
From just about any angle you look, Planned Parenthood is a wicked organization. Established in a spirit of racism, eugenics and elitist ideology posing as science, Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading abortionist. It has also been revealed (and these are contemporary sins) that various PP offices and staff are guilty of covering up statutory rape, aiding in sex trafficking, fraud, massive misuse of funds, lying about their services, and being indifferent to the genuine cause of women’s health. And yet it gets hundreds of millions of dollars every year from federal tax money as well as from state and local governments and foundations who still act as if Planned Parenthood is some kind of charity.
For more details see these web pages:
“Things Planned Parenthood’s ‘Truth Team’ Forgot to Mention” by Susan E. Wills
“Top Ten Reasons to Defund Planned Parenthood Now” (from Live Action)
Planned Parenthood: Where Are the Missing Millions of Our Tax Dollars?
Congressman Cliff Stearns: “Defunding Planned Parenthood – A Fiscal and Moral Priority.”
Contact information is available in these web sites, linked articles and the general Vital Signs Action Alert Address page.
Sample Letters:
Dear Senator Nelson,
We have asked you for many years to join in the effort to remove tax funding from Planned Parenthood, the nations #1 abortionist who is now killing nearly 350,000 preborn babies every year through surgical abortion. And though you’ve long claimed to be pro-life, you have not come aboard.
How about now? With the recent revelations through undercover videotapes of Planned Parenthood staffers from around the country covering up statutory rape and even giving advice to sex traffickers in how to escape the law, are you finally going to begin aggressively working to de-fund this nefarious business?
I await your response – one that doesn’t bother to play the “separate pockets” argument. Planned Parenthood should not be getting a dime of taxpayer money.
Dear Whole Foods Market,
I write to ask if your company will be continuing to support Planned Parenthood even though the mega-abortion business has been scandalized in recent months through numerous undercover video tapes. These tapes have revealed numerous Planned Parenthood staffers around the country illegally covering up statutory rape and even advising sex traffickers how to escape the law. In addition, Planned Parenthood has been caught making alarmingly untrue claims about the health services they provide.
And, oh yes, there’s that little matter of the missing millions of American taxpayer funds which Planned Parenthood refuses to explain.
In light of these very disturbing reports (not to mention the fact that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s number one abortionist with nearly 350,000 preborn babies being killed by surgical abortion every year), I urge you to completely sever ties with this nefarious business.
Until you do, I must respectfully announce I will not be doing business with Whole Foods Market. I will also share the news of this regrettable partnership with friends, family, my church members and the visitors to my blog and networking sites.
Please do the right thing. And soon.
This is one of the letters written at a recent Vital Signs Ministries P.A.L. Night yesterday evening. Similar letters were also sent to JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo (including Wachovia), Chevron (including Texaco, Xpress Lube), Midas, Nike, Marriott (including Courtyard, Fairfield, Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton, etc.), Johnson & Johnson, and Staples. Addresses for all these corporation are on the VSM Address List here.
6) Always an ongoing and fervent concern for Vital Signs Ministries is the persecution of Christians.
We encourage you to scan through the “Persecuted Church” items on Vital Signs Blog. Also, keep in frequent online contact with such excellent human rights advocates as Voice of the Martyrs, Prison Alert, Human Rights Foundation and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, all of which are listed in our links section on the Vital Signs Blog.