DCX AND TOYOTA IN FOMOCO-STYLE MARKETING MESS.

Somebody . . . "Rescue" Chrysler, Ford and Toyota from themselves.

Automotive News is reporting that DaimlerChrysler and Toyota gave a swift fire-axe in the gut to the Parents Television Council's request to pull advertising from FX Networks' "Rescue Me."

PTC opines that "Rescue Me"-- a fictional yarn about out-of-control F.D.N.Y. firefighters -- is simply "'cultural sewage' in the wake of recent episodes depicting graphic rape and brutal violence."

"[M]ore than 130,000 people under the age of 18 typically watch "Rescue Me," and children as young as 2 are viewers."

DCX and Toyota's response?

Each ripped a familiar canard from the corporate marketer's list of favorite excuses: "We do this not with the intent to offend but with an appreciation for diversity in consumer viewing preferences," according to Jason Vines, Chrysler's apparently clueless VP of Communications (One wonders why "Dr. Z" didn't bludgeon PTC into submission on this one. Maybe someone should "ask" him? www.askdrz.com). Vines continued "It is also important to remember that the American consumer has the ability to turn on or off TV shows, as do PTC members."

One wonders what's next? Will DCX start sponsoring "KKK" websites and "Girls Gone Wild" videos under the guise of "respecting . . . diversity?"

Such "don't blame us" gibberish ought to remind you of when Charlton Heston decided to read the horrific lyrics to the rap recording "Cop Killer" at Time Warner's annual meeting in 1992:

"I'm here as a shareholder, but I speak as a private citizen and the public artist I've been most of my life. I think I understand the rights and responsibilities of both identities. I'm here to condemn this company's response to the growing clamor across the country. I condemn the responsible officials of this company . . . In the end, of course, the buck stops at the top." http://www.canadafreepress.com/2002/Heston81902.htm

(Curiously, the author of "Cop Killer"-- Ice T-- now stars as a COP on Law and Order: SVU)

Ford Motor Company (tm) also cries "diversity" and "don't hold us responsible for content we subsidize" in its flip-flop in the on-going boycott controversy (see www.boycottford.com)

Of course, if Ford were still fouling the River Rouge waterway, the general public wouldn't tolerate a "you can swim and drink elsewhere" response.

In essense, the tired corporate marketing excuse line boils down to exactly that.

PTC cuts through the excuses, though. "We're not saying parents have no obligation. But advertisers have an obligation . . . If a line is to be drawn in the sand, it will be by advertisers," because the program won't air without ads."

Corporations just cannot have it both ways. They cannot rely on the hypnotic "power of advertising" on the one hand and then shirk responsibility for the sorts of corrosive messages that adverstising makes possible.

Once upon a time, corporations understood the need to maintain basic, civil levels of decency in the entertainment they sponsored.

Even great parents cannot be everywhere, all the time. Society used to understand the doctrine of in loco parentis -- society has a responsiblity to its own self-preservation to 'stand in the gap' when parents aren't around (either by choice or otherwise) and to inculcate the values of "composition" instead of "decomposition."

Sadly, Ford, DCX and Chrysler no longer accept the responsibility to not facilitate the "pollution" of our culture.