Monday, December 12, 2011

Lowe Blow- 'Hip Hop Mogul' and CA State Senator Blast Home Improvement Retailer Lowe's For Pulling Ads From TLC's 'All American Muslim'

Def Jam records founder Russel Simmons has condemned home improvement retail chain Lowe's [NYSE: LOW] for their recent announcement that they were pulling their ads from the TLC Channel's All-American Muslim program.

The man who made his fortune from gangsta' rap and promoting the thug lifestyle before moving on to throw his lot in with Occupy Wall Street has accused the North Carolina-based chain of bigotry and Islamophobia after Lowe's announced they were pulling their advertisements on the show.

The reality show, which is filmed in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, MI, showcases the day to day goings-on of five Lebanese shi'a families in America's largest Muslim community and airs on Silver Springs, MD based Discovery Communications [NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB & DISCK] TLC Channel.

Lowe's was one of dozens of companies to pull their advertising from the show amid declining ratings and letters from groups like Florida Family Association urging them to withdraw their ads.

For some unknown reason, California State Senator Ted Leiu (D- Torrance) decided to jump into the fray, issuing a shrill press release calling for a boycott of Lowe's as well as 'legislative remedies'. What 'legislative remedy' a state senator from California thinks he can impose on a North Carolina-based company that withdrew its ads from a TV show filmed in the Detroit area and airing Maryland-based TV network, I have no idea. It's also worth noting that State Senators in California are limited to two terms, so I suspect that that Leiu has his eyes on running for another office once he's finished with the State senate in Sacramento, and his threatening Lowe's with some unspecified legislative action for a fairly routine and legal business decision is an attempt to further gain status among liberal voters in his Los Angeles County district [WHEW! Good thing California doesn't have things like 12% unemployment or a $265 Billion debt to worry about! On second thought, maybe its best progressive Democrats like Leiu are distracted by his dog and pony show targeting Lowe's and kept away from the levers of power- NANESB!]

Of course, there could be a staggeringly obvious reason behind the furor of Lowe's dropping their ads from All American Muslim that everybody seems to be overlooking, and that would simply be an attempt to boost the shows ratings, which have been sliding after a strong start.
All-American Muslim started out strong with 1.7 million viewers and a 0.9 share of adults 18-49, the demographic most coveted by advertisers. Advertisers will pay money for low-rated shows so long as they have a high 18-49 share. But by the second episode it had lost 600,000 viewers and its 18-49 share was down to 0.5. The week after that it was the lowest rated cable show on the top 100 for the night. And last week’s episode was bad enough that it appears to have fallen out of the top 100 completely.
If it were a reality show centered around a less sensitive subject, then nobody could fault Lowe's or other sponsors for yanking their ads.

Full disclosure- I have not seen an episode of All American Muslim for myself. I did see an ad for it during one of the NFL games a few weeks ago, and while I thought the premise was intriguing for all of 5 seconds, I lost interest when one of the women on the show reassures viewers "I don't have a camel in my backyard". My only reaction to that was Lady- given the actions of Nidal Hasan, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, Hasan Akhbar and Faisal Shahzahd, whether or not you have a camel in your backyard is the LEAST of my concerns.
For the record, the lovely young woman above is Noor Al Maleki- the daughter of Iraqi immigrants and what some might consider an 'All American Muslim'. Unfortunately, Noor was run down by her father in a Peoria, AZ parking lot in October 2009 and died of her injuries a few weeks later. Her father fled the country but was later arrested and sentenced to 34 years in prison.

Noor's father was upset at her for becoming too Westernized and reportedly rejected an arranged marriage to an Iraqi groom when she was 17. She moved into her own apartment at age 19, but was reportedly harassed by her father at work, insisting she return home to her parents in the months leading up to her murder and the attempted murder of her boyfriend's mother.

It's not as though I think the families depicted in 'All-American Muslim' are phonies or bad people [again, I haven't actually seen the show, so I'm withholding judgement- NANESB!] it's just that people should be wary of murderous acts like this getting whitewashed, minimized or omitted altogether in both the promotion of TLC's 'All American Muslim' and the shrill accusations of bigotry and islamophobia from Simmons or Leiu.

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