10 More Advertisers Drop Glenn Beck

Posted by James Rucker, Color of Change at 4:44 PM on August 27, 2009.

Today we're announcing that ten more companies have made sure their ads won't run on Glenn Beck's program:

Adding to an increasing list of companies distancing themselves from Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck, ten new companies whose ads were recently seen during Beck's program -- Applebee's, Bank of America, Bell & Howell, DirecTv, General Mills, Kraft, Regions Financial Corporation, SAM (Store and Move), Travelers Insurance and Vonage -- have pledged to take steps to ensure that their ads don't run on Beck's show. Forty-six companies have now committed not to support Beck's show since ColorOfChange.org launched its campaign three weeks ago 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.

Three of the latest defections -- Travelers Insurance, Bell & Howell and DirecTv -- join the list of advertisers who claim to have already placed Glenn Beck's program on a "do not air" list, but whose ads have been seen on Beck's program, apparently against their wishes.

"We could not be happier with the results of our campaign so far," said James Rucker, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org. "All 46 companies that have distanced themselves from Glenn Beck should be applauded for their stance."

"We are still reaching out to companies whose ads we see during Beck's nightly program," Rucker continued. "Based on the fact that many of the recent ads on Beck's program are for gold coins and News Corp properties, it looks like Fox News Channel is struggling to place advertisements on Beck's show."

Over 170,000 people have now signed our petition to Glenn Beck's advertisers, and it's working.

Here are statements from the new companies distancing themselves from Beck:

"As mentioned before, Applebee's regularly evaluates where our advertising appears," said Miles McMillin, a spokesperson for Applebee's Services, Inc., in an email to ColorOfChange.org. "We strive to reach our diverse group of consumers in many different advertising venues. We do advertise in programming where various opinions are debated as we believe discussion about issues important to our country is very valuable. We expect this discussion to be respectful. As also pointed out earlier, we have not purchased advertising time on the Glenn Beck show specifically. However, at this time, we have asked that our advertising that appears on FOX News not be included on the Glenn Beck program."

In an email conversation with ColorOfChange.org, Joseph L. Goode, Senior Vice-President of Global Media Relations for Bank of America, confirmed that a statement posted on MediaMatters.org was authentic and that any advertisement placed on the Glenn Beck Program was an error and they would take steps to correct it.

"We don't advertise on Glenn Beck's show anymore," said Charlie Sahner, a spokesperson for Vonage, in an email to ColorOfChange.org.

"I can confirm the authenticity of the statement published on http://jenkinsear.com/2009/08/20/kraft-foods-drops-glenn-beck/," said Valerie Moens, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs for Kraft Foods Inc., in an email to ColorOfChange.org. "Kraft Foods has made the decision to stop advertising on the more politically extreme programs on all networks. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of shows with extreme content, including on the political front. These shows often are controversial and do not align with our company or brand values. That's why we have made the decision to stop advertising on the more politically extreme programs on all networks."

"We're not an advertiser, that I can tell you," said Tom Forsythe, Vice-President of Corporate Communications for General Mills, in a phone conversation with ColorOfChange.org. "It's not necessarily in response to your campaign. The action has much more to do with the content of the program ... Upon hearing your request, I made sure that that was true. But it should have already been true because of the nature of the show."

In an email to ColorOfChange.org, Jon Gieselman, Senior Vice-President of Advertising and Public Relations for DirecTV, Inc., confirmed that their ads should not be running on Glenn Beck's program. "We have actually not purchased national advertising from Fox News during his show since August 3rd, and right now we don't have plans to purchase media in the future," Gieselman said. "We have already clarified our position with Fox News."

"To be clear, the Glenn Beck program has never been part of our advertising effort," said Frank Colangelo, Director of Advertising Research for Travelers Insurance, in an email to ColorOfChange.org. "Any Travelers advertisements that ran during that program in the past were due to commercial placement mistakes by Fox News. In fact we have a standing "no buy" policy with regard to the program and we have confirmed that fact with Fox News."

"We've discontinued our advertising on this program and don't plan to resume," said Scott M. Peters, Chief Marketing Officer for Regions Financial Corporation, in an email to ColorOfChange.org.

"Our company, SAM (Store and Move) has complied with your request and "The Glenn Beck" show has been put on the "do not air" list for SAM," said Nicole Henkel, a spokesperson for SAM (Store and Move), in an email to ColorOfChange.org.

"While our distributor controls advertising, we have no plans for ads on this [Glenn Beck's] program," said Hank D'Ambrosio, Vice-President of Administration for Bell & Howell, in an email to ColorOfChange.org. "As I said to you in our conversation and reiterated in my conversation with our distributor, in our 102 year history, Bell and Howell has never been involved in politics or in anything that could be construed as discriminatory in any way and never will."

We're going to continue monitoring ads on Glenn Beck's show, reaching out to his remaining sponsors, and making sure that none of those that dropped Beck resume advertising on his show.

Thanks again for being a part of this campaign -- we couldn't do it without you.

Tagged as: glenn beck, color of change, sponsors