Eating their Words?

During the hot summer of 2011, Whole Foods developed plans for in-store promotions around the month-long Muslim holiday, Ramadan. While observant Muslims typically fast throughout the day during Ramadan, they break the fast at sunset often with a family feast or banquet, so the connection to Whole Foods certainly makes sense—Especially since a core element of the promotion was to communicate that Whole Food now carries halal frozen food (food that complies with Islamic dietary laws and restrictions). But the market campaign drew fire from a number of conservative bloggers, who claimed Whole Foods was ready to do anything to "shill for jihadist interests" and is "anti-Israel." In apparent response, Whole Foods cancelled the promotions related to Ramadan, via an email from one of its regional offices to its marketing teams that read in part, "It is probably best that we don't specifically call out or 'promote' Ramadan...We should not highlight Ramadan in signage in our stores as that could be considered 'Celebrating or promoting' Ramadan." The email, which immediately went viral via Facebook and Twitter ignited an instant controversy. Key arguments:

In favor of pulling Ramadan promotion:
• Since avoiding controversy is one way that a business can protect its brand, Whole Foods was simply exercising their responsibility to protect the investment of their shareholders, since the highly visible blogosphere was creating a sense that there was a link between Islam and terrorism.
Against pulling Ramadan promotion:
• Whole Foods appeared to be pandering to a vocal anti-Islamist minority
• The email itself smacked of prejudice—especially since Whole Foods and a number of competing food businesses certainly do plan promotions around other religious holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, and Passover. The taint of unfair prejudice may