From Mediaweek.com
Lowe's Bows Out of Big Brother: Retailer Lowe's will not be advertising on future episodes of CBS' current edition of Big Brother due to defamatory comments made by contestant Adam Janinski on Feb. 13 about people with autism. Janinski, ironically, works for the United Autism Foundation of Florida. John Gilmore, executive director of a group called Autism United, has contacted many of the advertisers which appeared during that episode, including Lowe's, Campbell Soup, Claritin, Geico, McDonald's and Taco Bell.
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First off---is it really "ironic?" That word is so over used. People use it all the. Most of the time it's used incorrectly. We should stop using that word for a while so we can find other words that describe a situation - maybe even a word that fits. Then bring "ironic" back so we can use it. Sparingly.
Ok, the real reason I found this interesting... Why is the Executive Director wasting his time boycotting "Big Brother." Yes, it is terrible to say bad things about autism. I don't know what he said, but I'll assume it was bad. Fir argument's sake. But so what? How will this help families with autistic children? How does it help people with Autism?
In Advertising Age Gilmer said, "Lowe's is doing the responsible thing." Are they? Is it responsible? If they are going to take responsibility for their actions they should go back in time or make some kind of reparations. Free lumber to anyone who was offended! Lowes isn't the issue. They didn't knowingly sign off on this guy saying a horrible thing.
Maybe CBS should not have aired the comment. As a former and possible future reality show producer my guess is they wanted to make him a bad guy. So they left in the comment.
But punishing CBS is not going to help anyone. Maybe this guy should've contacted the sponsors and network and got them to donate money to the many important autism foundations like, Surfer's Healing.
That would ironic. (No it would not.)
(pictured is the Scottish winner of Big Brother.)
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