Lowe's Holds Ground With Weak Spin On TLC Ad Pull

Lowe's stands by its ad pull even as a North Carolina-based interfaith group collects 200,000 signatures expressing concern over the company's action. Lowe's is based in Mooresville, N.C. According to the Charlotte Observer,

On Tuesday morning, Revs. James Leach and Russ Dean, of the Unitarian Universalist Church and Park Road Baptist congregations in Charlotte, drove to Lowe's Mooresville headquarters. They were accompanied by other representatives from the interfaith Mecklenburg Ministries, bearing more than 200,000 signatures from petitioners. The petitions asked Lowe's to apologize and to reinstate its advertising.

But the petition did not achieve the desired outcome, and Lowe's held firm with a weak backpedal attempt after the meeting. Per Entertainment Weekly's "Inside TV" page,

"The decision was absolutely not, despite what's been reported in the media, influenced by any one group," said Lowe's vice president of marketing, Tom Lamb.

He said that the decision to stop advertising on the show had been made before the Florida Family Association emailed Lowe's CEO, Robert Niblock. ...

Lamb told the Observer he was "surprised" that the Christian group was credited with pressuring Lowe's, which made the "routine" decision to pull the ad.

A spokesman says the first spot aired Dec. 4 as part of a bulk buy. (TLC didn't specify which shows the ad would appear in). Within 24 hours, negative feedback about the TLC show had appeared on the company's social media sites, so the decision to pull the ad was made shortly thereafter. "We're surprised at how much happened and how quickly it happened in the context of an advertising decision," Lamb said.

The Hollywood Reporter adds this:

According to the company, the All-American Muslim promo time was part of a bulk ad buy, though they understood the show following Muslim residents of Dearborn, Mich. could be included. He also says the decision to pull the ads was made on Dec. 5 shortly after their social media team identified negative comments on the show that morning.

The company says Lowe's CEO Robert Niblock received the initial email from the FFA later that same afternoon.

Lowe's spokesperson Chris Ahearn says that the company responded to the FFA with a form letter explaining the ads had already been pulled. She also says that decisions to pull commercial spots from shows that are considered controversial are made perhaps 8-10 times a year. The company declined to name other shows it has pulled its advertising from.

I'm not buying the Lowe's spin (and I'm wishing that Mecklenburg reps hadn't bought it either: "'We respect their business decision,' said Dean," states the Observer).

I'd like to see the kinds of comments and the volume the company alleges on its social media channels on Dec. 4 - 5. It's likely less than the 28,000 Facebook comments it received (and even dividing that evenly pro and con, that leaves 14,000), and it's likely less than the 200,000 signatures gathered by Mecklenburg.

That leaves content as the driving factor from that early feedback, if you want to follow their argument. Anti-Islamic rhetoric (such as we saw left unchecked on FB) would be the likely major tone.

Given the numbers as described above, along with the company's actions throughout this brouhaha, I'm left with two  conclusions:

PR Fail: Pressure Mounts On Lowe's For TLC Ad Pull, updated

Some excerpts on my take Saturday on the Lowe's debacle as written up for Muslim matters.org:

From a professional public relations perspective, Lowe’s public response indicates a lack of a good crisis communications plan. Without detailing the chinks in their armour — as I have no desire to strengthen their strategy at this stage — that lack of planning does indicate a certain corporate vulnerability. Also noteworthy is the fact that the company succumbed easily to pressure from the Florida group, which indicates some corporate attention to consumer buying power and interests — so continued and increasing pressure should yield results.


The key will be in numbers: the objective will be to show Lowes management that those outraged over the company’s decision far exceed the constituency that called for the ad pull.

Some further thoughts:

Their decision aside, what's been astounding is their PR failure throughout in trying to backpedal and spin their decision.

The inadequate Facebook response --  which comes off as being written by an inexperienced  social media intern with no corporate oversight and  hastily approved by a lawyer not too happy to be bothered on a  weekend -- is an inelegant (notice the typo) way of offering an apology of sorts, while spinning their original cave to pressure.  It rallies those who support their position, but does little to indicate a sincere re-evaluation of the ethics behind their choice  and  shirks any responsibility to pull themselves out of the fray they created:

    It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective – social, political and otherwise – and we’ve managed to make some people very unhappy. We are sincerely sorry. We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers, and we’re proud of that longstanding commitment.


    Lowe’s has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible. Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lighting rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.


    We strongly support and respect the right of our customers, the community at large, and our employees to have different views. If we have made anyone question that commitment, we apologize.


    Thank you for allowing us to further explain our position.

That they've let their Facebook comments go completely unchecked , allowing some truly repulsive and vulgar comments to appear (even from both camps), flies in the face of their alleged claim of "We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers."

Most corporations with a  sound understanding of social media  and community management will reign in the most egregious comments but allow a fairly wide berth. That Lowe's is unwilling or unable to do so  -- and in the end, sending a signal that such customers are whom they wish to build their community around -- reveals either Lowe's true colors, its communications ineptitude, or both.