The American Family Association (AFA), a far-right-wing Christian association that promulgates an intolerant attitude to adult sexual freedom, is accusing venerable retailer Sears of using pornography to market items on its website. The offending
content in this instance can be found in the In the Home section of the website, in the Wall décor/Art category.There are, in fact, nude art posters for sale in that section.
A blog post by AFA president Tim Wildmon titled You Won't Believe
What Sears is Selling, AFA tried more than a half-dozen times to reach out to Sears quietly and professionally, to no avail. Sears' public relations department has refused to return our calls and emails
The blog post continues
with a tone of incredulity. Sears is currently offering giant posters of total nud**y on its website, writes Wildmon. Sears knows they are selling smut. Technology allows Sears to remove and stop selling these posters within minutes, so why
won't they?
These aren't just posters of scantily-clad women, adds Wildmon. Some of them depict groups of people, lesbians and others engaged in ***ual activities. Very little is left to the imagination. Except the actual ***,
that is.
Needless to say, AFA wants its readers to complain to Sears, and they provided a link to its publicity department for that purpose. Unless Sears hears from you, they will continue to sell offensive posters, Wildmon says.
According to The Consumerist,
A Sears employee has responded to the group's concerns by saying that they 'have reviewed the products in question and found that they do not fall outside our marketplace guidelines.'
Art erotica previously found for sale at Sears Online
An American department store has pulled pornography off of their virtual shelves recently in response to nutter 'outcry'.
Sears, already under much scrutiny after their sale of nude posters last August, experienced further hassle from the
American Family Association when the organization found out the family-friendly company was selling pornographic DVDs online.
X-rated videos were added to the Movies and TV Shows section and made available to adults.
'Outraged' by the new direction the recently appointed chairman, Edward Lampert, seemed to be taking the company, most likely due to the company's economic decline, AFA said they tried to settle the matter
quietly and professionally.
The conservative group first ordered one of the DVDs to make sure the movies were actually from Sears. Confirming their suspicions, they received Hot Mamas Like Young Chicks 3 in a Sears envelope with a
subsequent shipping label from a Sears distribution center. AFA reported that they were never asked to verify their age during the check out process.
The Christian organization had previously made a half-dozen attempts to 'reach out' to Sears only
to get one response: We're going to keep on selling them! In response, through an email blast sent to over two million supporters and post online, they appealed to others to take action by making a personal phone call to Sears and
leaving a direct message with Lampert.
Unless Sears hears from you, they will continue to sell hardcore pornography. Additionally, people could also send an email to Sears, make a call to the public relations department, or call the local
store manager and ask that their concerns be passed to the district manager.
Now, whether or not it was due to these complaints, Sears has ended porn sales:
We sincerely apologize to any customers who were
offended, Sears wrote in a statement to the AFA. Our agreements with our vendors prohibit content that is pornographic or sexually explicit in nature.
We are removing these items that do not meet our guidelines. We
regularly review our processes to ensure compliance by our vendors, and we encourage our customers and community to help us flag any items that they believe might violate our guidelines.
And within the span of half an hour,
Sears removed hundreds of pornographic DVDs from its website.
Tim Wildmon, president of AFA, thanked all of the supporters, and expressed in a statement:
Because you and thousands of others chose to get
involved, Sears could no longer defend selling pornography, nor could they continue to deny it! Thank you for taking action and convincing Sears to get out of the pornography business.
Together, and with God's help, we
are making a difference.
