FX: Sponsors of 'Rescue Me'

Sent to Coca-Cola and Toyota

I am writing today to express my concern about your recent sponsorship of an extremely graphic episode of Rescue Me on the FX cable network.

I know that you have been contacted before about your sponsorship of graphic content on other programs and I am extremely disappointed that a well-respected corporation like yours would choose to pretend it has done nothing wrong in placing its ads on such a graphic, sexually explicit program. Although you may want to take the position that your company is not involved in network programming decisions, that simply isn’t true. Without the advertising dollars of companies like yours, programs like Rescue Me could not exist. As long as companies are willing to underwrite this kind of content, it will continue to be produced.

The advertising industry is premised on the assumption that viewers will be influenced by what they see on television. That influence does not end once the commercial break is over.

It is my sincere hope that you will not further jeopardize your hard-earned corporate image and brand name by further association with the sort of content that appeared on the June 20 episode of Rescue Me.

On the June 20 episode of "Rescue Me" there were over 42 profanities, as well as vivid portrayal and normalization of homosexuality, rape, and extramarital sex.