One Million Moms To Boycott 'Desperate Housewives,' Sort Of
Perhaps finally provoked by a joylessly over-the-top an outrageous storyline in which Eva Longoria's character cold-cocks the nun she believed to be seducing her husband, the endearingly nutty TV watchdogs at the American Family Association (whom we're sure you remember from their recent anti-drug-addicted-Episcopalians and down-with-pop-trailer-trash-cameos-on-the-gay-show campaigns) are calling for a boycott of Desperate Housewives' sponsors, who surely will forsake the show's 20-plus million viewers to placate some publicity-addicted bible-thumpers:
One MillionMoms.com [an online arm of the AFA] will be monitoring weekly episodes of "Housewives" during the months of April, May and June to identify which companies sponsor the show. After compiling the list of advertisers, OneMillionMoms.com will launch a year-long boycott of one or more of the leading "Desperate Housewives" sponsors. [...]
Wildmon calls the show "one of the trashiest programs on television." He says, "Many people consider it to be the most offensive, so we decided to take on the worst of the worst."AFA's founder and chairman intends to let advertisers know they are taking a risk by sponsoring the program. "Doing this will cost ABC millions of dollars," he says. "If advertisers know that the program is going to be monitored and that they're going to be identified with that program, they're going to be less inclined to run their ads on that program."
Never ones to back down from an opportunity for some on-the-nose envelope-pushing, an appropriately provocative response from the Housewives producers should be forthcoming. Casting will begin immediately for "JC," a bearded, robed drifter who mysteriously appears to offer Wisteria Lane his freelance carpentry services, then quickly becomes entangled in a love triangle with boozy Stepford-mom Bree and her petulant, bi-curious son.
