JCPenney recently launched a very special Father's Day ad featuring a real live gay couple and their adorable children. Dads Todd Koch and Cooper Smith and their kids, Claire and Mason, are so damn cute, it's hard to imagine anyone who would want to tear it all apart. Or actually, maybe it's not that hard.
I want you to do something for me. Picture one million conservative soccer moms opening up their mailboxes and seeing that ad at the top of the pile. What do you think their reaction will be? (Quick thought for a viral video: can we put video cameras in mailboxes? That's still legal, right?)
A couple months ago, the professionally uptight offshoot of the American Family Assocation, One Million Moms, attacked JCPenney for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as the company's new spokesperson. It is speculated, and most likely true, that this new campaign is a direct response to criticism from One Million Moms With Something Up Their Butt. JCPenney refused to cave in to the pressure, DeGeneres remains spokesperson, and this ad simply does not give a fuck.
Here's the text: "First Pals: What makes Dad so cool? He's the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver – all rolled into one. Or two." You see that? Nothing about attacking traditional marriage or eroding the social mores that bind this country together. Just a family of people who love each other. And one million uptight moms won't change that.