Our campaign calling on Glenn Beck's advertisers to stop supporting his show continues to pick up steam. Today we're announcing that sixteen more companies have pledged not to run their ads on Beck's show:
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.
That brings the total to 36 companies that have pulled their support from Beck or given explicit instructions that their ads are not to run on the show. It's all because more than 160,000 ColorOfChange members connected the dots for Glenn Beck's advertisers and called on them to stop supporting his show. We want to say thank you to everyone who's participated in this campaign.
We could also use your help. We brought on additional staff for the campaign in order to drive as many advertisers away as possible. We need to keep them in order to maximize the number of advertisers that drop Beck and to make sure none come back. Anything you can provide will help us get there -- whether $10, $20, $50, or more. You can make a contribution to help move the campaign forward, here.
More on how the campaign has been going, and statements from the new companies distancing themselves from Beck, after the jump.
After we first launched this campaign, our staff began contacting advertisers to convey the concerns of our members and ask advertisers to stop supporting Beck. Most advertisers decided to do the right thing after hearing about what Beck is doing, and that so many people are concerned about it. Some needed evidence of the level of outrage, so we flooded with comments from people that signed the petition to advertisers. Others needed a picture of what it would look like for their company's name and brand to be publicly associated with Beck's rhetoric, so we showed them that, too.
Then there were those that refused to answer our calls or respond to our emails. Red Lobster, Vonage, Clorox, Lowe's, and Experian fell into that category, and we asked some of our members to give them a call.
By the end of last week, ColorOfChange members made more than 2,800 calls to those five companies, and in just two days, three out of the five -- Experian, Clorox, and Lowe's -- pulled their ads. We're still waiting to hear if Red Lobster or Vonage have changed their minds, and we'll follow up with them this week.
Here are statements from the 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.
Moving forward
We are dedicated to moving this effort forward, and we'll be calling on you to help--whether it's making focused calls to other advertisers, signing another petition, or doing some other action that will get us closer to exposing what Beck represents and marginalizing his voice.
Today, though, financial support is what we need most. A contribution from you -- whether $5, $10, $20, or more -- will help us maintain the staff we've brought on to help with this effort. We know that for some folks it's a hard time to give, but if there's any possibility you can make a donation, please do so. This is a time we can really use your support, and it will help us keep the pressure on. Click here to donate.