Finishing the Job with the Glenn Beck Boycott

The Glenn Beck boycott has been amazingly successful, and we continue to pressure advertisers who sponsor Glenn Beck's hate speech. UPS has even taken it a step further and pulled ALL Fox News advertising. You can email them and thank them for doing the right thing: customer.service@ups.com

We are trying to make the Glenn Beck boycott really matter. This comes from Color of Change:

Glenn Beck is finally paying for his race-baiting and fear-mongering, and we've got Fox News on the ropes.

It's all because of you and more than 165,000 other ColorOfChange members who connected the dots for Glenn Beck's advertisers and called on them to stop supporting his show. Thirty-six companies--many of them major household names--have now pulled their ads and otherwise made sure that their ads won't run on Beck's show.

The New York Times called the campaign "unusually successful," given the history of such efforts in the past.1 And stories about the campaign have run on MSNBC2, The Colbert Report3, National Public Radio (NPR)4, and major newspapers/sites5,6 and blogs7,8, including a piece over the weekend by the Associated Press (AP)9--all of which puts more pressure on advertisers.

First, we want to say thank you and let you know about what's been happening (read more below). 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 -- and it will cost $20,000 over the coming months to do so.

Anything you can provide will help us get there--whether $10, $20, $50, or more. Just click on the link below to make a contribution and help move the campaign forward:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/beck/support/?id=2371-151630

"Unusually successful"

There hasn't been an exodus of advertisers in response to an organized effort like this in decades. Here are the companies that have stopped their ads from running on Beck: AT&T, Airware Inc. (maker of Brez anti-snoring aids), Allergan (maker of Restasis), Ally Bank (unit of GMAC Financial Services), Ancestry.com, Best Buy, Blaine Labs Inc. (maker of Dr. Blaine's brand skin treatment products), Broadview Security (Brink's Home Security), CVS, Campbell Soup Company, Clorox, ConAgra (maker of Healthy Choice brand foods), Ditech, The Elations Company (maker of Elations nutritional supplement), Experian (FreeCreditReport.com), Farmers Insurance Group, GEICO, Johnson & Johnson, Lawyers.com, Lowe's, Men's Wearhouse, NutriSystem, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Re-Bath, Roche (make of Boniva), SC Johnson (makers of Ziploc, Off!, Pledge, and other products), Sanofi-Aventis (maker of Ambien), Sargento Cheese, Sprint, State Farm Insurance, Travelocity, The UPS Store, Verizon Wireless, and Wal-Mart.

Demanding accountability

After we emailed you a few weeks back, our staff began contacting advertisers to convey your concerns and to ask them 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 them with your comments. 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.

Building on our success

This campaign has already been far more successful than many people expected--but we won't stop here. Our staff is going to continue reaching out to Beck's remaining advertisers to make sure they understand the growing number of people asking that their ad dollars stop supporting hate.

And it's not just about stopping Glenn Beck's divisive rhetoric--it's about drawing a line in the sand with FOX and anyone else that thinks it's fine to peddle hateful propaganda under the banner of "news."

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 taking some other action that will help expose what Beck represents and marginalize 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:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/beck/support/?id=2371-151630

Again, thanks for what you've done so far. Your effort is what's made this possible. And it's definitely making a difference.

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
August 25th, 2009

References

1. "Host Loses Some Sponsors After an Obama Remark," The New York Times, 08-13-09
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/business/media/14adco.html?_r=1

2. "Geico pulls ads from Glenn Beck show," Countdown with Keith Olbermann, 08-12-09
http://tinyurl.com/n5dg37

3. "Glenn-Harried Glenn-Lost," The Colbert Report, 08-13-09
http://tinyurl.com/mwp8nl

4. "Color Me Offended," National Public Radio, 08-21-09
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/08/21/03

5. "Advertisers deserting Fox News' Glenn Beck," MarketWatch, 08-14-09
http://tinyurl.com/loro3x

6. "Is Glenn Beck too right wing even for Fox News?" The Independent (UK), 08-19-09
http://tinyurl.com/ktvp8z

7. "Walmart, CVS, Best Buy, GMAC Among 8 Major Companies To Pull Ads From Glenn Beck Show," Huffington Post, 08-17-09
http://tinyurl.com/p3ways

8. "Wal-Mart, CVS, Best Buy ditch Glenn Beck (plus 5 more companies)," James Rucker for Jack and Jill Politics, 08-17-09
http://tinyurl.com/o4zoxt

9. "Attack on Obama riles Beck's advertisers," Associated Press, 08-23-09
http://tinyurl.com/oxxn5v

Additional resources:

"Schott's Vocab: Beckxodus," New York Times, 8-20-09
http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/beckxodus/

"More Advertisers Pull Ads From Glenn Beck's Fox News Show," Broadcasting & Cable, 08-13-09
http://tinyurl.com/pykpuu

"Fox Runs House Ads to Fill Empty Slots in Glenn Beck Boycott," BNET Today, 08-18-09
http://tinyurl.com/n8sl9q

"P&G Didn't Buy Time in Glenn Beck's Show, So How Did Its Ads End Up There?" Advertising Age, 08-13-09
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=138461

American Morning, 07-31-09
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907310008

Morning Joe, 08-14-09
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908140005

I also urge you to keep up the pressure on companies. Right now I think it is time to THANK companies that have done the right thing. See the list above for a full list of advertisers who have pulled their ads, but I list a few below. Click on them for contact info.

Clorox

Campbell's Soup

Vonage: or call them: 1-866-243-4357

GEICO: or call them: 1-800-861-8380

Men's Wearhouse: or call them: 1-877-986-9669

Progressive Insurance: or call them: 1-800-776-4737

Procter & Gamble

Johnson & Johnson

Contact any of them you do business with and thank them for doing the right thing by pulling their ads from Glenn Beck.