Conagra, Roche, Sanofi and RadioShack Pull Ads From Fox's Beck
ConAgra, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and RadioShack have all joined the advertisers who have pulled their ads from Glenn Beck's show on Fox News Channel after the host called President Obama a racist.
That brings to 12 the number of companies boycotting Beck. (The others are Geico, Men's Wearhouse, State Farm, Sargento, LexisNexis, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance and S.C. Johnson.)
The boycott campaign, started by ColorofChange.org, was triggered by Beck's statement on Fox & Friends that Obama has:
-- a deep-seeded hatred for white people -- I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.Advertisers remaining on the show -- and thus on the boycott hit list -- are: General Electric, Farmers Insurance, Office Depot, Nestlé (Gerber), Red Lobster, Travelocity, the U.S. Postal Service, Walmart and Wyeth.
A Fox spokesperson told the NY Times pretty much what the network previously told BNET:
The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network so there has been no revenue lost.The boycott campaign has moved from being merely noteworthy to unusually successful. While advertisers' money may have moved elsewhere on the network, it is unlikely that Fox is seeing higher prices on other shows as former Beck advertisers increase demand for alternate times. Those shows have lower ratings than Beck. (Besides, you don't want to charge your clients more for the bother of not having their favored show available.) Which raises a question -- again -- as to which factor will be the dominant one at Fox: The extra attention generated for the show or the cost of running a show where advertiser demand is not only dropping but causing a headache for both Fox's sales staff and its clients.
Separately, if Fox wants to bring this to an end, how would it do so? It's gone on so long that a Beck apology will not be regarded as sincere. Nonetheless, a pro forma act of contrition may be enough to allow everybody to get back to business as usual.
Image: A Fox caption describes the first lady as a "baby mama."