Boycott Yum Brands – Long time advertisers of programs negatively targeting youth

By: American Decency Staff

Recently, we have returned to regular monitoring of Fox TV’s Sunday night shows: Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show. One of the questions that we wanted to answer for ourselves is “Does Yum Brands still so aggressively advertise on trashy shows?â€ÂÂ  After several months of monitoring, the answer is a resounding YES.  Yum Brands are prevalent in these shows. We have quite a history with Yum Brands – and one that Yum Brands should be ashamed of – as you will see below. Yum Brands includes: Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers and A&W Writing in our monthly newsletter in December 2004,  we wrote:  “On November 23, ADA received a telephone call from Yum Brands asking that ADA discontinue its boycott of Yum Brands. Yum Brands includes Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silvers and A&W (Long John Silvers and A&W do very little advertising on television). Yum Brands has been a leading advertiser of a number of network television programs  ADA has monitored over the last eighteen months including Paradise Hotel, Bachelor, Bachelorette, and most, recently, Desperate Housewives and Life As We Know It. In recent weeks, ADA had called for a boycott of Yum Brands after the corporation failed to respond to ADA's efforts to get them  to withdraw from sponsoring trash programming. Despite thousands of postcard and email communications from ADA's membership, Yum Brands was totally unresponsive to urgings not to advertise on egregious programming. Johnson made several efforts to contact Yum Brand's CEO Mr. David Novak by email and also called Amy Sherwood, consumer affairs representative.  Within a couple of days, Johnson received an email from Yum Brands stating they were withdrawing their advertisements from Desperate Housewives. Here is the letter written to ADA from Yum Brands (then) Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Mr. Jonathan Blum. November 17, 2004 Dear Mr. Johnson, I wanted to inform you that Yum! Brands will not be advertising in Desperate Housewives going  forward.  We determined that the content of the program is inconsistent with our Media Ethics Guidelines.  As a result, we have notified ABC and have pulled advertising from the balance of year programming for Pizza Hut and KFC.  Our Taco Bell brand had no plans to advertise on Desperate Housewives any time during the remainder of the year. Sincerely, Jonathan Blum Senior Vice President Public AffairsYum! Brands, Inc. Pretty encouraging you might say.  But it doesn’t end there. Quoting from our December 2004 newsletter: Though encouraged that Yum Brands had pulled its ads from Desperate Housewives,  there was no indication that this decision would affect similar programming.  ADA continued to promote its boycott of  Yum Brands until  receiving a telephone call from another Yum Brands employee asking Johnson if he would withdraw the ADA online boycott page.  Johnson responded to the Yum spokesperson that he would like assurances that Yum Brands would be staying clear of similar programming.  There was positive indication that this would be the case. After  consultation with ADA staff,  the  Yum Brands boycott was called off….â€Â However, this was December and they were indicating that they wouldn’t be advertising for the remainder of the year. Yum Brands resumed advertising in 2005.  As ADA continued its monitoring of Desperate Housewives we noted Yum Brands resumed its advertising on Desperate Housewives in 2005.   After contacting Yum Brands again and urging our supporters to do the same, we received the following from Yum Brands: On February 14, Yum Brands wrote they were pulling their ads from Desperate Housewives. Thank you for taking the time to write us regarding the show Desperate Housewives. I wanted to inform you that Yum! Brands will not be advertising in Desperate Housewives going forward. We determined that the content of the program is inconsistent with our Media Ethics Guidelines. As a result, we have notified ABC and have pulled advertising from the balance of year programming for Pizza Hut and KFC. Our Taco Bell brand had no plans to advertise on Desperate Housewives any time during the remainder of the year. Thank you again for writing, we appreciate hearing from you. Yum! Consumer Relations On Febuary 15, ADA notified our email list that Yum Brands had pulled their ads from Desperate Housewives.  We stated in part: Yum Brands will not be advertising on 'Desperate Housewives.'  We urge you to write Yum Brands and thank them for their forthright decision. And then Yum Brands did what no other company has ever so blatantly done to American Decency Association.  Yum Brands, after clearly stating they were withdrawing, went against their very word. On February 20, after stating their ads had been withdrawn, Yum Brands advertised twice on  Desperate Housewives. On February 21  via email, this is what I wrote to Yum Brands: I am saddened. Yum Brands ads appeared last night on Desperate Housewives. When you wrote the email saying no more ads on Desperate Housewives, doesn’t your word count for anything? I have a hard time believing this wasn’t a mistake as I have more regard for you than this. Looking forward to hearing from you.  Your call anticipated. 231-924-4050 Bill Johnson On March 20, Yum Brands (Taco Bell)  ads again sponsored Desperate Housewives and ADA received no further response from our communications with Yum Brands. Our April 2005 newsletter headline article read: Yum Brands bushwacks ADA Can you do business with a company that goes against its word? Much more could be said, but the record shows that Yum Brands continues to sponsor some of the most degrading programming on network television with a now long history of advertising on Fox’s egregious Sunday night shows:  Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show. Here are the advertising results for Yum Brands in recent weeks.

Fox Shows
Family Guy	4/11/2010	3/21/2010	3/7/2010	2/21/2010	2/14/2010
Cleveland Show	4/11/2010	3/21/2010	2/14/2010	2/7/2010
American Dad	4/11/2010	2/14/2010	2/7/2010	1/31/2010

For your information regarding just one of the programs, though each of the Sunday night Fox Shows is rotten to the core: 'Family Guy' is filled with profanity and crude language.  Graphic sexual references abound and depictions of sexual intercourse are common. Undiscerning and uninvolved parents may assume that since the show is animated that it's harmless. 'It must be okay, it's a cartoon after all.'  This very mistaken impression leads to countless children and youth tuning in. Contact: Yum! Brand addresses for all – Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers AND A&W Click on the link below to express your concern to the advertiser that empowers this destructive programming http://americandecency.org/take_action_form.php YUM! Brands, Inc. – Yum! Brands David C. Novak – Chairman, President, and CEO 1441 Gardiner Lane Louisville, KY 40213 Phone: 502-874-3820 Fax: 502-874-8790 david.novak@yum.com yum.consumeraffairs@yum.com American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org www/twitter.com/billwjohnson

---