Kelly Clarkson holiday ad comes under fire from conservative group

The conservative group One Million Moms registered its anger Friday over a new Wayfair holiday ad in which the pop singer Kelly Clarkson says “what the fudge.”

One Million Moms said it received “numerous complaints” from supporters regarding the commercial, which features a holiday party gift swap.

At one point in the ad, Clarkson, who is Wayfair’s brand ambassador, pulls out a gift she doesn’t like and says: “What the fudge?”

“Clarkson not only delivers the final word of this commercial with emphasis, but the word is slowly elongated, and the audio of her voice drops to an exaggerated bass sound,” One Million Moms said in a statement about the ad.

“Foul language (or the implication of it) is unnecessary in this or any advertisement, but evidently, that is what Wayfair intended,” the group continued. “Since Clarkson did not appreciate the gift received during this commercial, this offensive slogan obviously insinuates profanity. At this point in the ad, all viewers know that the f-word is implied.”

The group went on to accuse Wayfair of having “deliberately chosen to produce controversial advertisements instead of wholesome ones … Apparently, Wayfair executives do not care about what children hear—despite how damaging and destructive such ads are to our children.”

One Million Moms called on its supporters to sign a petition calling on Wayfair to pull the ad. As of Friday afternoon, the petition has more than 12,000 signatures.

Newsweek has reached out to Wayfair for comment.

This isn’t the first time One Million Moms has waded into the culture wars. The right-wing group was created by the conservative American Family Association and protests against the presence of LGBTQ characters in children’s stories and family content.

Last year, it started a petition to boycott the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade because the it included nonbinary performers.

The petition described the parade as a “nonbinary and transgender extravaganza,” adding that it would “potentially expose tens of millions of viewers at home to the liberal LGBTQ agenda.”

“It is clear that Macy’s does not have our children’s best interests in mind,” the group said at the time.

Republicans and conservatives have long leaned into the culture wars, but they doubled down on their anti-LGBTQ messaging this election season, painting Democrats, Hollywood, and the media as overly “woke”—a derisive term many conservatives use to describe identity politics and progressive values.

Indeed, one of the most widely circulated political ads of the season was one from President-elect Donald Trump claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris “is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”