# Lowes -----WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 14, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228 "2011-12-14T21:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/1 "2011-12-14T21:35:41Z")
The Learning Channel has come out with an extremely pedestrian “reality” show about some nice young couples around Detroit who happen to be Muslim. The name of said show is “All-American Muslim” I managed a few minutes of baby drama and found it too boring to keep going. Predictably, certain elements on the right have freaked out that TLC dares to show Muslims without explosives strapped to their chests. Lowes sponsored the show until one group of morons with Family and Christian in their name complained. They then folded faster than Superman on laundry day and pulled the ads. More about it here: > **[Opinion | Turning up the heat on Lowe’s and anti-Muslim bigotry](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/turning-up-the-heat-on-lowes-and-anti-muslim-bigotry/2011/12/14/gIQARVrAuO_blog.html)** > > Congress enters the fray. A huge company like Lowes caving to ONE group of bigots… amazing. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/2 "2011-12-14T21:43:41Z")
I’m surprised to see that there hasn’t been a Pit thread on this yet. Very gratifying, though, to see the immediate outcry against Lowe’s from many, including various celebrities and [Rep. Chris Murphy](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/turning-up-the-heat-on-lowes-and-anti-muslim-bigotry/2011/12/14/gIQARVrAuO_blog.html). ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/3 "2011-12-14T21:48:57Z")
Lowes has the right to advertise during whichever TV spot they choose, just as the American people have the right to frequent their business, or not frequent it, based on that choice. _Why_, exactly, is Congress talking about it? Yeah, Murphy might have a personal interest in the situation, but why is he taking the floor over it? Are they supposed to vote on an official Lowes boycott or something? Doesn’t Congress have better things to do? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/4 "2011-12-14T21:51:04Z")
Nobody’s going to force Lowe’s to advertise again, but it is bigotry or at least bending to bigotry, and that deserves to be spoken out against. It’s high time we got past the blanket Muslim = evil crap. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/5 "2011-12-14T21:53:19Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > Lowes has the right to advertise during whichever TV spot they choose, just as the American people have the right to frequent their business, or not frequent it, based on that choice. _Why_, exactly, is Congress talking about it? Yeah, Murphy might have a personal interest in the situation, but why is he taking the floor over it? Are they supposed to vote on an official Lowes boycott or something? Doesn’t Congress have better things to do? No, Congress has absolutely nothing better to do. No the Federal government might not shut down again this Friday for what, the 10th time this year? No our representatives have nothing better to do then talk about Lowes of the floor. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/6 "2011-12-14T22:44:59Z")
At least Lowe’s made the decision to try it. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/7 "2011-12-15T01:23:32Z")
Didn’t people pull sponsorship from _Ellen_ when she came out of the closet? Super suck. Unfortunately, Lowe’s won’t feel the heat from any of us boycotting them. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/8 "2011-12-15T01:42:37Z")
A boycott may not affect their bottom line, but all corporations are super sensitive to image - if they weren’t they wouldn’t have pulled the ads in the first place. If they get more noise in the general marketplace of opinion saying what they did was stupid and reactionary they’ll react to that. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/9 "2011-12-15T02:29:27Z")
Send them an email or go to their Facebook site and complain like I and 24,000 others did. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/10 "2011-12-15T02:52:23Z")
I went to their FB page, and my post was deleted. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/11 "2011-12-15T02:54:14Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Super suck. Unfortunately, Lowe’s won’t feel the heat from any of us boycotting them. At least not from me. I haven’t set a foot in one of those stores in years. The final straw was when an employee was telling me about the concrete and I asked where the rebar was. The Lowe’s guy looked at me and asked “what’s rebar?” :smack: Haven’t been back. Off topic I know. I just can’t stand Lowe’s. They are bastards for pulling their ads over the show, too. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/12 "2011-12-15T03:08:30Z")
It was a pretty dumbass move on their part. If they had continued advertising I doubt anyone, save for a handful of extreme right wingers, would have cared enough about it to stop shopping there. But now, all they’ve done is draw a lot of negative attention to themselves. As someone mentioned above, corporations are very image sensitive, so I’m kind of surprised they didn’t think this through better. At the very least, I figured they would have simply stopped advertising on it without acknowledging they were influenced by these assclowns at the Florida Family Association. They would have had their cake (not advertising on what they deem to be a controversial show) and be able to eat it too (not deal with all the flack from appearing to cave in to a bunch of bigots). ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/13 "2011-12-15T03:56:37Z")
I think one of the sad facts in our country is we may well have enough bigots that Lowes sees an increase in sales overall over this bullshit. Already many have mentioned they will shop at Lowes for excluding Muslims, while many like myself will boycott their business. I’m left wondering how the divide in America works out on this issue. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/14 "2011-12-15T04:10:52Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Send them an email or go to their Facebook site and complain like I and 24,000 others did. Not so fast! They wiped a tremendous number of posts because they were too “sharp”. They’re down to about 3,000 now. It appears that my comment from this afternoon was deleted…I was simply pointing out to all the Good Christian People that their ire was misdirected, as Lowe’s is clearly playing up this incident to distract people from the “War on Christmas” (they advertise “Holiday Decorations” on their site). 😃 This was actually a savvy business move on Lowe’s part…they recognized that their target demographic is the all-American bigot, and decided to lock into it. Sadly enough, there are plenty of them in this area. It’s really a shame that the staff of every Home Depot I’ve ever visited acted like I didn’t belong there. Home Depot’s corporate policies are otherwise good; didn’t they withstand some crap from the fundies about their positive treatment of gay employees? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/15 "2011-12-15T04:22:50Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > _Why_, exactly, is Congress talking about it? Yeah, Murphy might have a personal interest in the situation, but why is he taking the floor over it? Are they supposed to vote on an official Lowes boycott or something? Doesn’t Congress have better things to do? You don’t remember “freedom fries”, do you? > [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > This was actually a savvy business move on Lowe’s part…they recognized that their target demographic is the all-American bigot, and decided to lock into it. Sadly enough, there are plenty of them in this area. Not so savvy. You don’t have to be a bigot to swing a hammer. They just lost one customer with disposable income, an older house, and lots of young relative with birthdays and anniversaries coming up, and I am probably not alone. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/16 "2011-12-15T04:28:45Z")
All publicity is good publicity? This foreigner had never heard of Lowes until this incident. I heard about it because someone linked the [25 Dumbest Comments On Lowe’s Facebook Page About “All-American Muslim”](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/dumbest-comments-on-lowes-facebook-page-about-al). ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/17 "2011-12-15T05:09:31Z")
I’ve posted the same post on their website five times, and they’ve deleted all of them. For the record, here it it: “Lowe’s, you have every right to determine your own advertising strategy. You do not have the right to not receive criticism for that strategy. Your decision to cave in the face of hatred and bigotry is cowardice. American Muslims are as important a part of this country as any other group. Our country is a plural society - that means we accept more than one idea.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/18 "2011-12-15T05:31:14Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > All publicity is good publicity? This foreigner had never heard of Lowes until this incident. > > I heard about it because someone linked the [25 Dumbest Comments On Lowe’s Facebook Page About “All-American Muslim”](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/dumbest-comments-on-lowes-facebook-page-about-al). Man, I wish I could view those with a PALATR attitude. It makes me feel like finding a photograph of construction at Manzanar and making a lolcats-type pic with the caption: Lowe’s. Let’s Build Something Together But that would be wrong. And would call upon skills I do not possess. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/19 "2011-12-15T14:12:35Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > All publicity is good publicity? This foreigner had never heard of Lowes until this incident. > > I heard about it because someone linked the [25 Dumbest Comments On Lowe’s Facebook Page About “All-American Muslim”](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/dumbest-comments-on-lowes-facebook-page-about-al). I really wish I hadn’t read these. It is depessing to think there are even 25 people this filled with hate. Please remember that these are the collected dumbest comments, not the typical comments. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228/20 "2011-12-15T14:37:21Z")
> [@j666](#): > > You don’t remember “freedom fries”, do you? Now I do. I was about 14 at the time, though. Christ. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowes-wtf/606228.md?page=2)