Boycott Johnson and Pfizer

                                                                                                                                                                            Vol. IV, No. 3, April 1991

Christian Leaders for Responsible Television has called for a one-year boycott effective 15 March of two of the leading advertising sponsors of sex, violence and profanity on prime-time television: S. C. Johnson and Son, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc. Richard D. Land, executive director of the SBC Christian Life Commission, is a member of the executive committee of Clear-TV.

“Clearly the public airways are a public trust,” Land said. “These two companies have managed to stand out in both their sponsorship of programs which we consider to contain excessive and/or gratuitous sex, violence, and profanity, and in their unresponsiveness to our concerns about that sponsorship they have left us no recourse but to encourage our constituencies to express their displeasure through the constitutional right not to use their products.”

The coalition lifted a boycott of The Clorox Corporation in early 1990 when the company promised to reduce its sponsorship of offensive programming. A Clear-TV boycott begun in 1990 resulted in a quick change of policy by Burger King. The fast food chain ran newspaper ads supporting traditional family values on television and agreed to alter its advertising on TV.

Johnson produces such products as Agee shampoo, Curel skin lotion, Edge shaving cream, Enhance perfume, Halsa shampoo, L’envie perfume, Skintastic body gel, Soft Sense lotion, Bravo wax, Brite floor wax, Carnu polish, Clean and Clear wax, Duster Plus cleaner, Favor polish, Fumigator, Future floor coating, Glory rug cleaner, J-Wax, Johnson Wax, Klear floor coating, Off insect repellent, Pledge wax, Pride wax, Raid insecticide, Rain Barrell fabric softener, Shout stain remover, and Step Saver cleaner. The address is Chairman Samuel C. Johnson, S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., 1525 How St., Racine, WI 53403.

Products of Pfizer include Airspun Powder Essence mousse, Barbasol shaving cream, Ben-Gay rub, Chateau fragrance, Coty perfumes, Destin skin products, Emarude perfume, Exclamation perfume, Iron cologne, Lady Stetson cologne, Nuance, Plax mouthwash, Preferred Stock cologne, Shape’n Shadow eye kit, Sophia perfume, Stetson cologne, TZ-3 athlete’s foot ointment, Uniso and Vizine eye drops. The address is Chairman E. T. Pratt, Jr., Pfizer, Inc., 235 E. 42^nd St., New York, NY 10017.   [BP]