The American Family Association’s One Million Moms just won’t let Fox’s new series Lucifer air, this time by boycotting Olive Garden — one of the show’s sponsors.
Based on a character from Neil Gaiman’s critically acclaimed Sandman comic series, the show follows a bored Lord of Hell and he leaves the underworld and ends up amusing himself by helping the LAPD solve crimes. Even though the show is based on a comic book character, that hasn’t stopped One Million Moms from trying have the show cancelled every step of the way.
Last year, when the show was initially announced, the organization put together a petition to try to force Fox to cancel the show. Claiming that the show’s “mischaracterization” of Satan as a friendly, helpful, and likable person is an affront to the Bible. Moreover, its inclusion of “graphic acts of violence, a nightclub featuring scantily-clad women and a demon” just further exacerbate what they perceive as a further insult to Christianity and Christian morals.
Despite the fact that petition received 13,000+ signatures, their attempt to have the show cancelled ultimately wasn’t successful. It did however bring out the nostalgic side of Neil Gaiman:
“Ah. It seems like only yesterday (but it was 1991) that the ‘Concerned Mothers of America’ announced that they were boycotting SANDMAN because it contained Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans characters,” he wrote. “It was Wanda that upset them most: the idea of a Trans Woman in a comic book… They told us they were organising a boycott of SANDMAN, which they would only stop if we wrote to the American Family Association and promised to reform.
I wonder if they noticed it didn’t work last time, either…”
This time, though, the organization is going after Olive Garden, asking their supporters to “take action” against the food chain. Along with ways to contact Olive Garden via a toll-free number, One Million Moms’ website urges people to stop sympathizing with the devil:
Contact Olive Garden, who sponsored the spiritually dangerous program “Lucifer” and paid corporate dollars to promote their restaurants in association with the content of the program.
Use the information we have provided on our website, and let Olive Garden know that its advertising dollars are supporting sympathy towards the devil and glorifying Satan and that financial support should be pulled immediately.
Claiming that the show is “spiritually dangerous,” it is hard to think that with the show already airing that it will be pulled. “If anything, One Million Moms just brought unwarranted attention for the Fox show,” reports PopWrapped. “This call to boycott just gave more attention to a ‘spiritually confusing’ show than all the Olive Garden commercials that would be broadcast.”
Although it’s probably safe to assume that, as with their previous attempts to attack comic book properties, One Million Moms boycott will be unsuccessful, this is still another example of the lengths that some groups will go through to censor American entertainment.
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Contributing Editor Caitlin McCabe is an independent comics scholar who loves a good pre-code horror comic and the opportunity to spread her knowledge of the industry to those looking for a great story!