Advertisers Wimp Out: ‘Boycott’ Glenn Beck, But Stay On Fox News

by Robert Quigley | 12:15 pm, August 11th, 2009

» 7 comments

geicocaveman

Glenn Beck is in even deeper trouble over his remarks that the president is “racist” now that GEICO has joined Progressive Insurance, Lawyers.com, and Procter & Gamble in pulling advertisements from Beck’s Fox News show. Or is he?

Color of Change, a web-based grassroots group with more than 600,000 members that bills itself as “the largest African-American online political organization in the country,” has led a campaign to drive advertisers away from Beck’s show. They’ve been successful to a point, but the advertisers haven’t moved away from Fox:

From the GEICO press release: (emphasis added in bold)

“On Tuesday, August 4, GEICO instructed its ad buying service to redistribute its inventory of rotational spots on FOX-TV to their other network programs, exclusive of the Glenn Beck program,” said a spokesperson for GEICO Corporate Communications in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “As of August 4, GEICO no longer runs any paid advertising spots during Mr. Beck’s program.”

From the P&G/Progressive/Lawyers.com press release:

“No P&G ads should have appeared on this program in the first place,” said Martha Depenbrock, Brand Building Stakeholder Relations for Procter & Gamble in an email. “To be clear, if any of our advertising appeared on the Glenn Beck show, it was in error and we appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention…”

“Our (advertising) order specifies no Glenn Beck,” said Linda J. Harris, Media Director at Progressive Insurance in an email to ColorOfChange.org. “We have confirmed with the network that our spots should not be running there.”

The reason these spokesmen were able to blame their ads appearing on Glenn Beck on technical problems with a straight face is because cable ad buys work differently from network purchases. Networks sell ads by time slot, but cable channels sell ads by number of eyeballs. If GEICO, Progressive, and the rest initially expressed preference for Beck’s slot, it’s relatively easy for them to heroically shift their ads to different slots while still getting their dollars’ worth. Fox holds onto the marquee advertisers. And as long as they can find replacements to air during Beck’s slot — and given his ratings, they likely will be able to — Fox and the advertisers are able to please everyone without addressing the gaping hole that is Glenn Beck’s initial remarks. Call it advertising shuffleboard.

Color of Change scored a legitimate political victory in keeping high-profile advertisers away from Beck’s program, but it’s unclear whether the move will have much financial impact, thanks to the tricks at Fox’s and advertisers’ disposal.

Advertising, Bill O'Reilly, Caveman, Color of Change, GEICO, GEICO Caveman, Glenn Beck, Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance

http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

Fox is where the viewers are. You really think advertisers are going to leave Fox because “Color of Change” says to? Get real.
MT

the only reason foxnews has so many viewers is that they have a much larger share of the market than msnbc or cnn does. more viewers have access to foxnews, unfortunately, than they do the other 24-hour news networks, and a lot of Foxnews’ viewers only get one side of the story, as foxnews is biased against obama and is a pretty far right news channel. they do not check their facts very well. glen beck is a disgrace and says some pretty stupid and untrue things. i believe he has some sort of paranoid mental problem and he is feeding his ridiculous and completely untrue and unfounded fears to the viewers. he takes advantage of the less educated and gullable public who will believe anything they are told without checking the facts for themselves. FoxNews should fire this guy for being such a hate and fear inciting person and for not being fair and balanced and not checking his facts. nothing that comes out of this guy’s blowhole is true! Foxnews, in general, hates Obama and never has anything good to say about him or his policies. They always misstate and misinform and misinterpret. They don’t bother with the facts much. Obama is a good president and is not trying to screw america up in any way, shape or form. He was left a huge mess to clean up and it will take time and patience. It’s not gonna happen in six months or a year. Fox has misrepresented almost everything that Obama wants to do with health care and health insurance reform.
JimW

I like Glenn Bleck and O’Reilly and FOX News and, when it gets too much, I’ll watch the Food Channel or SpongeBob. So what… I still think for myself, I am not brainwashed or anything, and I love to see people like MT get all bent out of shape whenever anyone confronts Barack Obama on anything. I just turned 65, and I don’t want Obama taking jack s**t out of my Medicare. I bought AARP supplemental insurance and I am 100% totally happy with my life and medical insurance and I don’t want ANYTHING to change.
TinaR

I see there are only Fox supporters here…I like to say Hello to my friends and keep up the good work! I Love Fox News and all other liberal news stations are BLOCKED from my TV because I can and I pay the bill!

MT have you read the 2 health care bills? I have…what say you? wink wink..The Truth will always come out! What is done in darkness will always come to light.

Peace!
mjm500

I don’t think Geico has any business playing policitcs with its advertising decisions. I am organizing a boycott of Geico that everyone is invited to join – http://www.boycottowl.com/Geico/5.
Freethinker

What are the other products I shouldn’t buy? I’m starting a list from all the network stations next.