For Immediate Release
August 24, 2009
Contact: Brandon Hatler –
DumpGlennBeck@gmail.com
16 New Companies
Pledge Not to Run Ads on Glenn Beck;
Total Reaches
Three Dozen
Sprint, Lowe’s,
Clorox Among Latest To Defect as ColorOfChange.org Members Reach Out
Directly to Companies Who Refuse to Pull Ads
OAKLAND, Calif.—Facing increased
pressure from ColorOfChange.org members, 16 new companies have pledged
not to run additional ads on Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck Program.
Thirty-six companies have now committed not to support Beck’s show
since ColorOfChange.org launched its campaign three weeks ago.
The defections come as ColorOfChange.org
members mobilized last week against corporations who still refused to
pull their ads from Glenn Beck by placing thousands of phone calls to
company executives. By the end of the week, three of these companies
– Clorox, Lowe’s and Sprint – had pledged not to run additional
ads; Red Lobster and Vonage have not yet responded.
The new companies distancing
themselves from Beck include Airware Inc. (makers of Brez anti-snoring
aids), Ancestry.com, AT&T, Blaine Labs Inc., Campbell Soup Company,
Clorox, Ditech, The Elations Company, Experian (creator of FreeCreditReport.com),
Farmers Insurance Group, Johnson & Johnson (makers of Tylenol),
Lowe’s, NutriSystem, Sprint, The UPS Store and Verizon Wireless. They
join twenty other companies who previously pledged not to run additional
ads on Glenn Beck. The moves come after the Fox News Channel host called
President Obama a “racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white
people” during an appearance on Fox & Friends.
Comments from advertisers recently
distancing themselves from Beck:
“…Sprint ads appeared as
part of a broader rotational package of advertising purchased on the
Fox Network,” said Kathleen Dunleavy, a Sprint spokesperson, in an
email to ColorOfChange.org. “They were not specifically targeted to
the Glenn Beck Show nor should they air during this program going forward.”
"…I wanted to let you
know that we have taken steps to make sure that [Sprint] will not be
advertising on the Glenn Beck show,” Dunleavy later reiterated in
a phone message to ColorOfChange.org.
“While we will continue to
advertise on news programming, including FOX News, there are certain
programs on the FOX Network that do not meet Lowe's advertising guidelines,
including The O’Reilly Factor and Glenn Beck Program,” said Meliski
Cox, a spokesperson for Lowe’s, in an email to ColorOfChange.org.
“Per our advertising standards,
we don't advertise in programs that display exploitive sex or violence,
treat ethnic, religious, or political groups in a disparaging manner,
present facts inaccurately or distort them to blatantly partisan advantage,
and treat individuals or groups in a demeaning manner”, said Adam
Oberweiser, a spokesperson for Clorox, in a phone message to a ColorOfChange.org
member. “We have had limited advertisements on the Glenn Beck Program
in the past, however the statements he made during that show would not
adhere to our programming standards. Furthermore, we will not
be advertising on his program in the future since he did violate our
own advertising standards.”
"We have addressed the
issue,” said Rich Hallibran, a spokesperson for The UPS Store, in
a phone message to ColorOfChange.org. “You will not see our ads on
The Glenn Beck TV program.”
“We are no longer advertising
on Beck’s program,” said Susan McGowan, Senior Director of Public
Relations at NutriSystem, Inc., in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “You
can now include us with the other companies that have stopped advertising.”
In a phone conversation with
ColorOfChange.org, a spokesperson for AT&T, Daryl Evans, said that
their company already had Beck’s program on a ‘Do Not Air’ list
for their ads, and if an advertisement was seen during ‘Glenn Beck’
it was placed in error. Evans pledged to call Fox News and correct that
error.
In a phone conversation with
ColorOfChange.org, Marcy Smith, Director of Advertising for Experian
Consumer Direct, confirmed that due to the number and frequency of complaints
they have received, they have specifically asked Fox News to pull any
of their ads from Glenn Beck’s program and distribute their ads to
other shows in the rotation.
“We obviously neither condone
nor endorse Mr. Beck’s comments,” said Anthony Sanzio, a Campbell
Soup Company spokesman, in a phone conversation with ColorOfChange.org.
“We were not pleased when we heard them [the comments] and they certainly
don’t reflect the views of this company. We have no advertising currently
slated for Mr. Beck’s program and don’t have any plans for the future.”
“In light of the consistency
of comments that are made, we don’t plan to advertise there in the
future,” Sanzio continued. “We have communicated to our media buying
agency that we will not be advertising on that show.”
“Thank you for bringing this
to our attention,” said Marc Monseau, Director of Corporate Communications
for Johnson & Johnson, in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “These
advertisements ran on Glenn Beck as part of a rotational advertising
package on Fox News, and I have shared your thoughts with those in our
organization responsible for making those rotational buys. We
have now informed the network to not include it in our rotation moving
forward.”
In a phone conversation with
ColorOfChange.org, Jim Gerace, Vice President of Corporate Communications
for Verizon Wireless, confirmed that they added Beck’s show to its
“Do Not Air” list based on Beck’s controversial track record.
“We, on our own, looked at where we’re spending our advertising,”
Gerace said. “We made a decision that we don’t want to be advertising
on that program for a lot of reasons.”
“We hear your concerns and
are no longer advertising on the Glenn Beck show,” said Cindy Thomas,
Chief Marketing Officer for Ditech, in a phone message to ColorOfChange.org.
“Ancestry.com buys television
advertising on many networks, including Fox News, but does not sponsor
any specific content or program,” said Mike Ward, Public Relations
Director for Ancestry.com, in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “However,
once this issue surfaced, we instructed Fox News to exclude our advertisements
from the Glenn Beck program.”
“I wanted to let you know
that AirWare Inc., the manufacturer of Brez anti-snoring aids, has instructed
its advertising agency to insure that none of our advertisements run
on the Glenn Beck show,” said David Green, Director of Public Relations
for AirWare, Inc., in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “Because of the
way TV advertising is purchased, company executives were not aware in
advance that our ads would be running on the show.”
“We have requested
that the ads not appear on the Glen [sic] Beck show,” said Dr. Robert
Blaine, President and CEO of Blaine Labs, Inc., in an email to ColorOfChange.org.
“Our contract is essentially a, ‘fill in where there is empty space’,
[sic] and lately, I guess there has been a lot of empty space on the
Beck show due to your organization. Our new contract comes up sometime
in September and that show will be stricken from the rotation. We do
not support [G]lenn [B]eck and do not support his show.”
“What we did last Thursday
was our advertising department requested of Fox News Channel that they
no longer place a portion of our ads on the Glenn Beck Program [sic],”
said a spokesperson for Farmers Insurance Group in a phone message to
ColorOfChange.org.
“Just want to let you know
that we will no longer be advertising on that [Glenn Beck’s] program,”
said David Silver, a spokesperson for The Elations Company.
Last week, ColorOfChange.org
began emailing the 150,000+ people who signed their initial petition,
asking them to call five major advertisers who continued to refuse to
pull their ads: Clorox, Experian (creator of FreeCreditReport.com),
Lowe’s, Red Lobster and Vonage. Members utilized background materials
prepared by ColorOfChange.org during their calls, and had access to
a calling tool that made it easier to report the result of each conversation.
Hours after members began making calls, Lowe’s contacted ColorOfChange.org,
pledging not to run additional ads on Beck’s programs. Clorox followed
suit Thursday, and Experian did the same on Friday.
Previous companies who have
corrected advertising errors and/or pulled their ads entirely include
Allergan (maker of Restasis), Ally Bank (a unit of GMAC Financial Services),
Best Buy, Broadview Security, ConAgra, CVS, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men’s
Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack,
Re-Bath, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, State Farm Insurance,
Travelocity and Wal-Mart.
With more than 600,000 members,
ColorOfChange.org is the largest African-American online political organization
in the country.
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