Robert Birge, chief marketing officer of Kayak, the travel search site, posted a note apologizing to customers for withdrawing his advertising from the TLC show All-American Muslim following a boycott urged by the Florida Family Association, a conservative group.
Or at least, it started out as an apology. Then it devolved into a rant about how the show, which documents the unremarkable lives of Muslims in Dearborn, Mich., "sucked," how TLC "was not upfront with us" and how TLC "is now enjoying the attention" that the boycott generated.
What Birge was seemingly trying to say was that although Kayak pulled its money from the show after learning about the FFA's proposed boycott, it did not do so because it was bending to pressure from bigots. Rather, Birge belatedly watched the show and decided it wasn't what TLC had promised to deliver. So he cancelled.
But what he actually said was this:
"The first thing I discovered was that TLC was not upfront with us about the nature of this show. As I said, it's a worthy topic, but any reasonable person would know that this topic is a particular lightning rod. We believe TLC went out of their way to pick a fight on this, and they didn't let us know their intentions. That's not a business practice that generally gets repeat business from us. I also believe that it did this subject a grave disservice. Sadly, TLC is now enjoying the attention from this controversy."
"Lastly, I watched the first two episodes. Mostly, I just thought the show sucked."
Put aside the fact that Birge is blowing Kayak's ad budget on TV shows that he claims to know nothing about. Let's try to follow Birge's logic: He starts out by saying Kayak chooses "advertising based on who watches it, not the political leaning of the program." He then describes the show as "worthy" but a "lightning rod." And it's hard to figure out how TLC would disguise the "intentions" of a show titled All-American Muslim. (You can see some decidedly non-controversial clips here.) Or how the show is a "disservice" to either its viewers or Muslims -- it couldn't be a more plain-Jane documentary series.
Finally, Birge ditches his original argument about only buying ads based on the audience and ignoring shows' political content, and concludes that he just doesn't like the show.
Note the line in the middle of the memo:
"I wish I could share some of the emails I've received from our team. They are also very unhappy with how I handled this."
Can't think why.
In case Birge decides his post should disappear, here's a screen grab for posterity:
Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Check Out The Insanity on Lowe's Facebook Page Following Muslim Spat
- POLL RESULTS: 1 in 3 Viewers Despises Television And Wants To See It Die
- Google Kills 'Google Shoot View' Video Game