AFA Targets Armani for "Promoting Homosexuality"

The American Family Association ("AFA") always needs a boycott target it seems to help whip its Christianist followers into a rage and, more importantly, rouse them to send in monetary contributions to support the Wildmon family lifestyle. The latest target is Armani Exchange because of its racy ads which the ever crazy loons at AFA claim are promoting homosexuality. AFA can see a homosexual plot behind almost anything regardless of how far fetched it may seem. Ford Motor Company has been previously targeted for simply advertising in gay publication - something that is perfectly rational if a business is trying to sell products to a market segment that has disposable income. What is often merely common business sense is seen as a sinister pro-gay plot. I suspect Armani's sole goal is to run provocative ads to get buyer attention. Here are highlights from the Edge on AFA's latest hissy fit:
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A group affiliated with the American Family Association targeted Armani Exchange for its Valentine’s Day ads. [The] group has targeted Armani clothing outlet Armani Exchange, claiming that the fashion company’s advertising is "appalling" due to what the group says are depictions of "threesomes" and "same s*x couples [sic]" in Armani’s romantically themed Valentine’s Day advertising.
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Text at the [AFA] site, using strategically placed asterisks to enable key words to get through spam filters, warns, "Malls, where teens hang out, have retailers whose window displays poison our children with 10-foot posters that are nothing but soft p*rn. In particular, Armani Exchange has recently displayed Valentine’s posters with partially dressed ’couples’ holding one another. These couples consist of two men, a man and woman, and two women."
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The text continues, "The women are scantily dressed while it is questionable if the men have any clothes on at all. Two of these models are used a couple of times to represent bis*xuals. If it could get any worse the text written is ’SHARE THE LOVE.’ "
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The Valentine’s Day promotion drawing a suggestion of boycott is reminiscent of a similar campaign against retailers last Christmas, when a group called American Decency sent out a call for shoppers to shun Abercrombie & Fitch, telling adherents that the company exploits teen consumers with eroticized advertisements that present sexuality in a context that could imply a "lifestyle agenda" to which the group objects.
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Such a "lifestyle agenda," as well as a "hidden agenda" that the group claimed A&F promoted, steers clear of overt marketing to gays, noted media watchdog Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAAD): "With nonstop pictures of beefcake, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has not only taken the gay community by storm but straight young men in college as well," a posting at the GLAAD Web site read.
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American Decency saw unholy motivations behind such imagery. Text at the group’s Web site declared, "Any corporate entity, TV program, magazine, video game, movie, catalog that attempts to undermine the sexual purity of any child or God’s clarion call ’to be holy as He is holy’ must be exposed and their evil opposed.
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Meanwhile, thanks to AFA Armani is getting additional publicity from AFA and, since the forbidden fruit is always more attractive, the children of the wingnuts are probably eager to buy some of the merchandise under attack.