Cookie Company Refuses to Crumble Before Homosexual Agenda
by Allie Martin
July 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - An Indiana bakery has pulled a large ad campaign from a trade magazine in response to the publication's decision to run a pro-homosexual editorial.
For years Ellison Bakery has advertised extensively in Dairy Field magazine, a trade publication for the dairy industry. Recently, however, Dairy Field ran an editorial critical of conservative pro-family groups such as the American Family Association for censuring Kraft Foods for its pro-homosexual policies. AFA has particularly targeted Kraft lately because of the food company's sponsorship of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago.
Upon seeing the editorial criticizing the pro-family group, Ellison Bakery general manager Todd Wallin quickly pulled the company's $20,000 advertising account from the magazine. "This is not a personal attack against people who have chosen this type of lifestyle," he hastens to explain, adding that homosexuals, like all people "are created in the image of God." Nevertheless, the executive adds, "I don't support things that would promote people making those bad choices."
Wallin says his immediate reaction to Dairy Field's decision to run the editorial was to decide on behalf of Ellison Bakery to "pull all advertising for the remainder of the year if the owners agreed that would be an appropriate thing to do." He then sent an e-mail to the president of the publishing company, Stagnito Communications, as well as to the vice president and to the woman who wrote the editorial, expressing his concerns.
"I received a call back from the president of Stagnito Communications," the Ellison Bakery official notes. He says the publishing company head mentioned that his editorial staff has been asked not to write about sex, politics, and religion -- a policy with which Wallin agrees to some extent. "They are a trade publication," he says, "and that's really not the appropriate venue for those types of things."
Ellison Bakery, which is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, produces cookie products for the ice cream industry. The general manager points out that he made his decision to pull the company's ads with Dairy Field out of a sense of corporate and personal responsibility. He describes pulling the ads as an expression of values -- and certainly not an attack against homosexuals or those who support the homosexual lifestyle.
"I don't want my company to be seen that way, and certainly personally do not want to do things that would promote people making that type of choice," Wallin says. He maintains that Dairy Field had no business printing the pro-homosexual editorial and feels it was inappropriate for inclusion in a trade publication.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
