Florida Family Association

The Florida Family Association is nonprofit organization founded by former corporate accounting controller David Caton in November, 1987. The group states on its website that its purpose is to "defend, protect and promote traditional, biblical values." The organization's initial activity was to pressure Circle K convenience stores to stop selling pornographic magazines. The organization claims to have "thousands of supporters" across the entire United States.

Protest of The Learning Channel's show "All-American Muslim"
In December, 2011 the FFA started urging its members to pressure sponsors to drop their advertising from a new reality show on The Learning Channel (TLC) called "All-American Muslim." The show follows five Muslim families living in Dearborn, Michigan, and portrays the "customs and celebrations, misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community." An initial episode titled "Harmony" showed a Muslim family preparing for wedding in which the husband-to-be was non-Muslim. Members of each family, Muslim and non-Muslim, were shown at a rehearsal dinner getting acquainted with each other's culture and customs. In another clip, a Muslim man complains about being labeled a terrorist.

Islamaphobic rhetoric and pressure on advertisers
FFA was disturbed by the positive portrayal of American Muslims, and complained to TLC and on its website that "The point of the show is to depict Muslims as ordinary folks just like you and me who are subjected to unjust suspicion." FFA maintained that the show was "propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia lawm" and said the and said it was an attempt "to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad." The group started a campaign to pressure advertisers to drop their sponsorship of the show. Some of the advertisers included 3M (Command, Scotchbrand tape), Big Lots, Campbell's Soup, Church & Dwight (Oxi Clean, Kaboom), Citi Card, City Furniture, Ferrero Rocher, Geico, Hershey's, JC Penney, Kellogg (Special K, Kashi) and Pfizer (Lyrica), ADT (Tyco), Del Monte (Pup Peroni), Nikon, Telebrands, Chrysler Group (Jeep) and Shari's Berries.

The group met with some success when two of the show's biggest advertisers -- the national hardware chain Lowes and the travel website Kayak.com -- pulled their advertising off the show. The CEO of Kayak.com claimed that no third party had influenced the decision to discontinue advertising on the show, and Lowes issued a statement saying the company had a "long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion," and that the show had become "a lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives - political, social and otherwise."

Sourcewatch resources

 * Pamela Geller (anti-Islam blogger quoted on FFA's website)

Contact
Florida Family Association P.O. BOX 46547 Tampa, FL 33646-0105 Phone: (813) 690-4829