AFA Reacts to John Hancock's GLBT Positive Ad
Press Release from the AFA

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America Family Association today criticized a new television commercial from John Hancock Financial Services, which shows two lesbians adopting a baby and declaring themselves a "family."

"What John Hancock has done is to promote same-sex couples as the equivalent of a husband and wife," said AFA Vice President Tim Wildmon. "That is insulting to millions of people who believe in the sanctity of marriage and the family. And it is especially outrageous that the company ran the ad during the Olympics, when children are watching."

The commercial shows two women at an airport holding a baby, and one of the women whispers to the sleeping baby, "This is your new home." In the conversation, the viewer hears that the child’s "papers"? evidently adoption papers? are in the diaper bag.

Then one says, "Can you believe this?…We’re a family."

A slightly different version of the ad ran at the end of July. The comment about the lesbians being a family was followed by one woman saying, "You’ll make a great mom," to which the other responds, "So will you."

The controversy over that version led to a Chicago Tribune story by Barbara Brotman. When Brotman contacted John Hancock, she was told that the company was deleting the comments about family and motherhood. However, the newer version of the commercial only drops the comments about motherhood.

"I have little doubt that, after the Chicago Tribune story ran, the company came under tremendous pressure from homosexual activists. John Hancock apparently buckled," Wildmon said.

In its own defense, John Hancock told Brotman, "We absolutely were not trying to communicate or promote or endorse one particular lifestyle or another."

Wildmon, however, found that too hard to believe. "That’s preposterous. Would the ad look any different if the company were promoting lesbian families? The truth is, John Hancock took a page out of the homosexual playbook and declared two lesbians with a baby to be a family."

Their Planned Action

Please contact the John Hancock Company and politely ask them to stop the promotion of homosexuality to our children through the television advertisement. Inform Chairman Brown that this fierce attack on the institution of the American family will weigh heavily upon your current and future choice of insurance provider.

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