Procter and Gamble’s Out of the Closet Do?
CBS’ daytime soap opera, As The World Turns, is catching heat from viewers after repeatedly airing episodes involving two of its homosexual characters kissing.
The scenes outraged the American Family Association, a non-profit organization that represents traditional family values. The group focuses on influences in the media, and particularly obscenity on television. The major problem is that CBS is owned by Procter & Gamble and the AFA has taken action by encouraging a boycott of P&G products, until the company agrees to stop showing homosexuals kissing on broadcast television.
This has caused quite the predicament for P&G, and they have struggled with finding the right solution for this issue. Originally, As The World Turns stopped showing the two characters kissing, after there was mention of disapproval, but in recent episodes the company has decided to stand up for gay rights and continue to show the characters kissing as they did twice before. In 1988, As The World Turns was the first daytime show to introduce a gay male character.
According to CNN, Jeannie Tharrington, a spokesperson for P&G addressed the issue and said, “It’s always hard to please a diverse audience, and we have a diverse audience.” The corporation has not backed down from supporting the issue, but it has been careful not to show the two male characters, Noah and Luke, kissing on a weekly basis, possibly because they fear agitating viewers who don’t support the couple’s relationship.
The AFA has asked people to “take action” and boycott P&G and its products. On the AFA Web site there is a page provided to explain the P&G and As The World Turns ordeal and it reads:
Procter & Gamble has resumed using explicit, open-mouth homosexual kissing in their soap opera, “As the World Turns.” P&G decided to include this type of content as a commitment to “diversity.” P&G stopped showing such scenes some months ago, but has now decided to again help promote the homosexual agenda which includes homosexual marriage.Gay activists are hopeful that the P&G effort will desensitize viewers to the homosexual lifestyle and help make the unhealthy and immoral lifestyle more acceptable to society, especially to children and youth.
P&G responded by creating a hot-line where people can call and vote for their support or disapproval of the couple and the progression of their relationship. Famous blogger, Perez Hilton wrote a post about his support for the Noah and Luke kissing, and he urged readers to call in and vote in favor of continuing to show the characters’ relationship.
It seems that no matter what P&G decides to do, it will loose a group of viewers and customers. If it stops showing Noah’s and Luke’s relationship’s progression, then it risks upsetting its audience that supports ”diversity” and homosexuality on television and other media outlets. However, if it continues to show Noah and Luke kissing and doing other things people in committed relationships do, then it will loose viewers and customers that identify with AFA and its views. Either way P&G is going to loose out on some business.
The question is, does it side with the people who are for equality and diversity or the people who are for 
bigotry and intolerance? It seems that P&G has decided to follow its own agenda and not worry too much about what either side wants. As The World Turns has a story line that’s already developed, and as long as there’s no serious decrease in P&G’s product sales because of the daytime show, I assume there will be no changes made to the show’s plot or characters.
*Images provided by the American Family Association, PerezHilton.com, and Google Images.
Filed under: Television | 1 Comment
I personally am so glad the the show decided to go with this storyline. Though there are those who don’t like it, nuke gained a huge fanbase very quickly. Thanks for the interesting read!