Breitbart is bleeding advertisers

[HAB911]

Since the 2016 presidential election, more than 1,400 companies — and counting — have yanked their advertising from the right-wing website Breitbart News, where President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was formerly the editor-in-chief.

The ad removals are the result of consumer backlash spearheaded by the Sleeping Giants, an anonymous collective of progressive activists who organize their protests on social media. The group has been urging people to blitz corporations with wake-up calls about the message the corporations are sending when they advertise on Breitbart, which is known for incendiary content that is frequently unsourced, false, and/or deliberately distorted.

The Sleeping Giants claims to be “an organization dedicated to stopping racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic news sites by stopping their ad dollars.” And its campaign has been working: The movement recently made headlines after the global ad network Omnicom confirmed the existence of an internal memo advising staff to pull ads from Breitbart on its clients’ behalf.

So far, the 1,400-plus advertisers that have withdrawn their ads from the site, typically through third-party ad networks, include such brands as Nordstrom, Zappos, Lululemon, and Etsy, as well as international corporations including Allstate, Mercedes-Benz, Hewlett-Packard, and BP.

http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/8/14700772/breitbart-advertiser-backlash-sleeping-giants

[C_U_L8R]

1. Hate and dishonesty is bad for brand and business

And rightwingers are a lousy target market
unless you're selling cheese curls and
double-plus-sized adult diapers.

[Sherman A1]

2. Good

couldn't happen to a "nicer" group.

[tanyev]

3. Unfortunately, the Mercers are probably picking up the slack.

[KittyWampus]

6. My first thought. Chump change to them when they're so close to getting rid of Government.

[BadgerMom]

12. This

was my immediate thought.

[drm604]

19. My first thought also.

The Mercers, or other wealthy right-wingers will fund them.

Either that, or they'll open a similar site on a new domain that isn't yet being boycotted.

[Initech]

4. Good. Fuck Breitbart.

[KittyWampus]

5. So what? It will be funded. Billionaires are finally close to dispensing with nation-states...

they will keep Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh afloat.

[Cary]

9. The one rule in economics is that everything will change

And I don't know if that business model is sustainable

[leftynyc]

10. Every single dollar

they get pulled away from breitbart is another dollar these billionaires have to come up with. I'd much rather it be coming from them than from companies I like to do business with.

[packman]

14. Couldn't agree more -

A big shrug of the shoulders about those companies bailing out - just like the ones who bailed on Rush, yet here he still is spewing and ranting. It's the billionaires that are supplying the life-blood to these hate mongers.

[Cary]

7. Vote with our pocketbooks

[leftynyc]

8. Sleeping Giants

has been doing outstanding work on this. I follow them on twitter and really appreciate how they're handling this. No anger, no rancor - just advising these companies their ads are showing up next to one outrageous story after another and asking them to consider removing breitbart from their ad buy and asking if they want their names associated with them. And not just American companies - they've done a lot in getting international companies to pull out also

[WhiteTara]

11. This is one way for the Mercers to spend

some of their money.

[Mickju]

13. Why did any of these companies ever advertise in this rag to begin with?

It isn't that difficult to figure out what a vile publication it is and always has been.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

15. Good point!

[Lucky Luciano]

16. They outsource to agencies that handle advertising quite often.

They don't always know where their ads are. They should know to opt-out though.

[oasis]

17. "Sleeping Giants"

Kudos for the excellent job you're doing .

[HAB911]

18. Another big score

Link to tweet

THIS IS GIANT!

@MarsGlobal has blocked Breitbart from their media buy. All brands. Stand by for a ton of confirmations!

[applegrove]

20. I think it is funded by some rich nut. The right believes in non profits

for their news outlet. They did it in canada for years. They get the money back by having the country elect Republicans who then cut taxes.