Condomnation: AFA Targets Nets

The Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association has launched a slick online campaign, onemillionmoms.com, onemilliondads.com and onemillionyouth.com, to rally its supporters against "the immorality, violence, vulgarity, profanity, etc., which the media is forcing on our children?"

The first target on the list (or at least the home page): The broadcast networks, which AFA fears may start accepting condom ads in prime time.

Citing reports that CBS and ABC have considered such a move, the group warns that "NBC and Fox and other networks will follow their lead....If the networks decide to break their self-imposed policy of not airing condom ads, we’ll soon have Church & Dwight’s “Trojan Man” ads bombarding our children at every turn."

Taking a page from liberal groups like moveon.org freepress.net, as well as Brent Bozell's  Parent's Television Council, the conservative Christian association is looking to leverage its power through the magic of mass e-mails.

"Become a member of OneMillionMoms.com or OneMillionDads.com," says the group in, appropriately enough, an "Action Alert" e-mail to AFA members.

"It is free, fast, easy and effective! You can join with other moms and dads from across the country in taking a stand for our children," the group says, "and your influence will be multiplied many times over because you are part of a national organization.

"Combined with others, your voice will have clout! Only a couple of clicks on your mouse will send your voice to decision makers...Please send an email message to the six major networks that use public-owned airwaves. Let them know you want them to reject any offers to air condom ads on network television."

AFA plans to make such e-mail campaigns a regular thing.

The site also links to what AFA says are its successes in getting advertisers to pull ads from shows AFA doesn't like, particularly American Housewives (http://onemilliondads.com/victories.asp).

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.