Don’t Get Angry, Get Active — Boycott David Letterman’s Sponsors
And Let Them Know Why
No matter where you stand in the American political color schema, red, blue, or purple, the children of politicians must be off-limits.
The minor children of politicians are private citizens who are in the public view due to the career choice of their parents. Politicians are public figures and therefore ripe targets for satirists, comedians, and the writers of Saturday Night Live.
Each election cycle, some commentator says something stupid and hurtful about someone’s child, usually a girl child.
Amy Carter was ridiculed for being awkward and bookish. Ken Hamblin, a popular Denver radio host, referred to Chelsea Clinton as the homeliest first daughter, ever. It should be noted, that he was genuinely amazed to find himself in the middle of an angry firestorm of condemnation, and nearly lost his gig. He apologized. God only knows what would have happened if he would have inferred that the President Clinton’s daughter was a slut.
It took sixteen more years for the public discourse to descend to the level that an aging talk-show host felt a completely inappropriate, perverted joke about the 14-year old daughter of Sara Palin, was humorous.
Letterman’s blatantly, sexist jokes targeted Alaska governor Sarah Palin and one of her daughters, who were visiting New York City. Leering into the camera, Letterman recounted, “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” Noting that Palin’s 14-year old daughter, Willow, accompanied her to the baseball game. Parsing that sentence out, he is accusing Rodriguez of statutory rape. In all the furor of the mean-spirited comment, I was personally surprised that Rodriguez’s lawyer didn’t visit papers over Letterman’s balding head.
Palin responded by calling the jokes “sexually perverted comments.” On the show following the incident, Letterman stated “these are not jokes made about her 14-year old daughter” and that he “would never, never joke about raping a 14-year old.” He said that jokes were about Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, while acknowledging the joke was “ugly,” “cheap,” and “in poor taste.”
As I listened to him stammer on, I just blinked my eyes.
So any woman who has a child out of wedlock is a slut and an easy target for degradation. Fascinating worldview, considering this aging roué has a live-in girlfriend and a son born out of wedlock. Based on his viciously judgmental comments about 18-year old Bristol, does Letterman consider the mother of his son, his mistress, a whore? In a previous time in American culture, all of Letterman’s millions would not protect his “illegitimate” son from the label of bastard. Today’s culture recognizes that that appellation should be reserved for the father of the innocent child.
The following week, Letterman further addressed the situation, stating that the joke was “beyond flawed” and accepting full responsibility. He apologized to Palin’s daughters Bristol and Willow by name, as well as to “the governor and her family, and everybody else who was outraged by the joke.” Letterman said he would try to do better in the future. Following the broadcast, Palin issued a statement saying that she accepted Letterman’s apology.
Letterman reached so far into the muck, he will never be able to wash the scent of mean-spirited misogyny from his public persona.
Sexism against one woman, degrades ALL WOMEN
I was deeply disappointed and disturbed about Arianna Huffington’s comment that Palin was displaying “manufactured outrage” over Letterman’s disgusting sex jokes. Women protect their young, period. American politics is a quid pro quo environment, a more-or-less equal exchange of pain and humiliation — “tit for tat”; or in this case, “you scratch my eyes out, and I’ll scratch yours”. Women must not help men sexually objectify or trivialized other women — not if any one of us hopes to be taken seriously.
If Letterman had used the exact same joke, but featured Michelle Obama and Malia, instead of Palin and Willow. Obama’s outrage would be no more manufactured than Palin’s. CBS would be carrying the has-been, unfunny man out of the Ed Sullivan Theater on his shield, to be interned, after a very short, private service, in the general vicinity of New Jersey’s Meadowlands. Women protect their young, period.
In the mean time, we do what we can to educate both men and women the value of protecting girls and young women. In Texas there is an expression, “You can’t fix stupid.” However, I believe with a united effort, one can make stupid uncomfortable enough to retire from public view. Please contact CBS and ALL of Letterman’s sponsors. It’s time to put Letterman in time out for bad behavior.
Letterman must experience a tangible downside to his behavior; otherwise it emboldens and perhaps encourages the next generation of “Wise-Guys” to attack another girl or woman.
The following list was developed by the Political Satire site HillBuzz. Visit and support them. They prove you can be snarky and smart, instead of snarkynd mean.
List of David Letterman’s Advertisers
Posted by hillbuzz under CBS advertisers, David Letterman sponsor, David Letterman sponsors, David Letterman’s Advertisers,
Tags: Hellmann’s Mayo supports statutory rape, Kelloggs supports statutory rape, Mars Candy supports statutory rape, The Olive Garden supports statutory rape, What products should I no longer buy?, Which companies and products support raping 14 year old girls?, Who are David Letterman’s advertisers? |
On June 8th, 2009 David Letterman “joked” about 33-year old Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees statutory-raping 14 year-old Willow Palin during the game at the new Yankees Stadium. Willow Palin was the only Palin daughter at the game with her mother, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Letterman “joked” that Palin’s “daughter got knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” during the game. Sex between a 33 year-old and a 14 year-old is statutory rape. Letterman then followed this vulgarity up on June 9th, 2009 by comparing 14 year-old Willow Palin to one of disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s prostitutes, while calling Governor Palin herself “a slutty flight attendant”.
Every day, add the advertisers you see on David Letterman or his website to this thread so a constantly updated running list is maintained.
Tell the following four companies you will no longer be patronizing them so long as they continue to advertise on Letterman:
Mars Candy (click for address and C-suite names)
Kellogg’s (click for address and full list of C-suite execs)
We’ll have better results if we focus all our might on the four advertisers (like Olive Garden, Mars Candy, Kelloggs, and Johnson + Johnson), but here are other advertisers of David Letterman as well. As one poster put it, “Aside from the cars and electronics, most of Letterman’s ads are for baldness, sexual dysfunction, pain relief, and vitamins. What does that tell you about the man?”
Microsoft (Bing)
Boston Market
Best Buy
Icy Hot
Wyeth (Centrum Vitamins) click here for C-suite exec addresses
Chase Bank
Macy’s
Kia
t-Mobile
Cadillac
Johnson + Johnson (Aveeno & KY Brand)
Merck (Rogaine)
Cricket
Samsung
Sanofi-Aventis (Ambien)
Mazda
Jet-Dry
Saturn
eBay
Intel
Lexus
TV.Com
On the Border Restaurants
CBSsports.com
JohnFreida.com
DiTech
Earn My Degree
True Credit by Trans Union
Bowflex
Rahal Racing (partner with David Letterman in racing ventures that earn him lots of money):
http://automobiles.honda.com/ – Honda supplies Letterman’s cars with engines
If is far, far more important for you to contact CBS’s advertisers. Only pressure on CBS’ revenue stream will get the executives there to take action against David Letterman. Think about it: CBS knows EXACTLY who and what David Letterman is. They have never had a problem with him or the vulgar, misogynistic things he says and does before. Only if advertisers abandon the network will CBS rethink its commitment to airing the Late Show with David Letterman. Write to the biggest, family-friendly advertisers above first and foremost, but here’s CBS’ contact information as well, in case you are looking for that too:
CBS Contact Info: (212) 975-4321
CBS Executives:
Nina Tassler = nina.tassler@cbs.com
Kelly Kahl = kelly.kahl@cbs.com
Kim Sartori = kim.sartori@cbs.com
Les Moonves = lmoonves@cbs.com
Reason: remember when Michael Phelps was caught with his marijuana bong? Kellogg’s cereal dropped him like a hot potato because its brand image is child-focused for most of its products. Speedo won’t ever drop Phelps, no matter what he does, but we doubt he’ll ever have his face on a McDonald’s happy meal again either.
No candy company will want to be associate with raping 14 year-olds.
No restaurant chain like Olive Garden will want to be consistently Googled with statutory rape.
Kelloggs won’t want to be involved in another messy advertising relationship after Phelps.
A concerted effort against family-friendly advertisers of Letterman will work, but it will require persistence.
“M&Ms: the candy for people who think rape is super funn!”
“Eat at Olive Garden so you can laugh about rape while eating unlimited salad and breadsticks!”
“Kelloggs: the breakfast cereal for misogynists and perverts who exploit minor children!”
“Johnson + Johnson: household products for when a 62-year old pig’s own johnson needs statutory rape to get going!”
Now, this should have brand managers racing for the phone if a focus and spirited effort is directed at hammering them each and every day until their ads stop appearing on Letterman’s show and website.
In this economy, a loss of three or four big advertisers like that will indeed be noticed by CBS.
UPDATE #2: Some advertisers, such as Best Western, are claiming they do not advertise on Late Night with David Letterman. This is apocryphal: Best Western buys banner ad space on CBS.com, and these ads appear on CBS.com when you click on the David Letterman page on that site. Best Western, Aerosoles, Paramount’s new Star Trek movie, and other banner ads pop up on every page of David Letterman’s site. This is paid advertising Best Western and these other companies CHOOSE to buy from CBS.
If you are an advertiser upset people who despise rape and refuse to allow Letterman to get away with promoting the rape of minors in New York, then you need to get on the phone to your ad buy account execs and yank your web ads from CBS.com.
No one believes you do not have the power to do this. If Best Western has agents who can post here, then you have agents who can call your advertising firms and stop giving your money to CBS and David Letterman.
It was consistently reported that WILLOW Palin, 14 years old, was in New York, attending events with her mother. Not 18 year old Bristol.
There is NO EXCUSE for Letterman and his writers to “make the mistake” of attacking “the wrong” Palin daughter.
None.
Just as there is no excuse for Best Western or any other advertiser to justify their support for Letterman by claiming, “we only buy ads online, not on TV”.
Best Western: the hotel to stay in if you love jokes about raping minors!
UPDATE #3: Some advice on how to write a good letter to corporate America.
UPDATE #4: Sarah Palin on The Today Show, 6/12/09. As Palin states, there was only one Palin daughter at that Yankees game: 14 year-old Willow Palin. Letterman deliberately said the Palin daughter at the Yankees game was impregnated by Alex Rodriguez during the game. That’s statutory rape of a 14 year-old by a 33 year-old baseball player. Palin calls Letterman out for, days later, trying to spin it that he was talking about “some other daughter” being forcibly impregnated at that baseball game — a daughter who was thousands and thousands of miles away, while 14 year-old Willow was the Palin at the Yankees game, in proximity to Alex Rodriguez. The joke makes no sense if it was indeed about Bristol, and the fact that Letterman never used “the Palin daughter’s name” seems like he deliberately built wiggle room for himself with his Obots and MSM enablers if he got called out for his joke about statutory rape.
Anyone advertising on Letterman’s program shares accountability for the content of his show because without your ad dollars corporate America, Letterman wouldn’t be on the air.
UPDATE #5: Why Democrats like Al Sharpton effectively use boycotts to affect public policy and corporate responsibility — and why conservatives allow the MSM to attack their own with impunity: it all boils down to the simple fact that Democrats never give up, never let up the pressure, while Republicans have poor follow through and don’t effectively organize. More on this from Sebastian Gray, with inisight into how David Letterman could inspire Republicans to see all this as a very teachable moment.
Thank you HillBuzz, from Inconvenient Women everywhere
