American retailer J.C. Penney has recently released a Father's Day print ad showing a real-life same-sex couple hugging their two young kids. "What makes Dad so cool?" reads the copy. "He's the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver -- all rolled into one. Or two."

J.C. Penney has proven (again) that it is committed to including the gay community. Indeed, the retailer caused a commotion earlier this year when it employed openly gay talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman. Despite being accused of abandoning "traditional values" by conservative groups like One Million Moms, the retailer stuck with their spokeswoman, saying that "Ellen represents the values of our company."

Since the ad surfaced, most users on social media sites have applauded J.C. Penney for taking a stand on a very heated issue in America. But One Million Moms is not happy. In fact, the organization is asking its members to avoid shopping at the Plano, Texas-based retailer, saying it is "disturbed" that the company is "continuing down the same path of promoting sin in their advertisements."

Since the catalog featuring real-life couple of Cooper Smith and Todd Koch, of Oak Cliff, Texas, began arriving in mailboxes last week, One Million moms have urged members to write "refused... return to sender." They are also asking members to close their store credit cards. "The Bible clearly states that marriage is between a man and a woman and no one, including JCPenney, can redefine it," One Million Moms director Monica Cole said in a statement.

"We knew that there would be some opposition, but it's nothing that we haven't heard from people our whole lives," Smith said to MSNBC.com. "It's just part of growing up gay." The couple said some backlash from the catalog was to be expected but pointed out that not everyone agrees with One Million Moms.

Koch said that some people didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. "I think some of the best responses that we've gotten from people are, 'What's the big deal? We didn't even realize that it was anything different until somebody made a big deal out of it.'"

Whatever you think of the ad, one thing is clear, the retailer is gaining a lot of attention for it -- and perhaps gaining shoppers in the process. "I just bought something from JC Penney for the first time in 30 years, because of this ad," one Twitter user wrote. Another tweeted, "Kudos to JC Penney. This is a huge step in the right direction."

One Gawker commenter was more to the point: "I'm pretty sure J.C. Penney did this on purpose to get more attention. Before the whole Ellen thing, when was the last time you heard about J.C. Penney, other than the fact that they were failing. Now they're getting all this free press. Smart move JCP!"
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