Ponderosa, the steakhouse chain, has designated the ABC show, “Nothing Sacred,” as a “DO NOT BUY” program. The following is an official statement by Ponderosa:
“The television program ‘Nothing Sacred’ has not been and is not an approved advertising buy for Ponderosa Steakhouse as outlined specifically in our advertising program guidelines earlier this year.
“One of our ads did mistakenly run during this program the week of Sept. 22. Our advertising agency purchased the advertising time months ago for another program, and unfortunately, the advertising time change was not made when the program time was changed.
“We appreciate this mistake being called to our attention so that we can make sure the correction is made.”
Ponderosa becomes the eleventh company to pull sponsorship of “Nothing Sacred.” It now joins the following companies in sending a message to Disney/ABC: Isuzu, Weight Watchers, K-Mart, Benckiser, DuPont, Red Lobster, Ocean Spray, Sears, AT&T and Glaxo Wellcome.
William Donohue had this to say about the latest news:
“Ponderosa’s official statement is fantastic. As a result, the Catholic League will urge families throughout the nation to give Ponderosa their business.
“It was reported in yesterday’s New York Times and USA Today that ‘Nothing Sacred’ was the lowest-rated show on the four major networks last week. I hope that all of those media experts who were laughing at how the Catholic League was going to unwittingly give the show a boost have sobered up by now. Fortunately, the public has been far more critical of the show than the critics have.”
