Occupy
2016-12-04 01:03:02 UTC
Kellogg Co. is pulling its ads from the website Breitbart News,
the right-wing news organization whose former chairman Steve
Bannon was tapped as a top adviser to President-elect Donald
Trump.
Brands that advertise on Breitbart have drawn flak in recent
weeks, with activists saying the website espouses racist and
anti-Semitic views. A screen shot showing an advertisement for
Kelloggs Frosted Mini Wheats was part of an online campaign to
get marketers to abandon the site.
We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our
ads do not appear on sites that arent aligned with our values
as a company, said Kris Charles, a spokeswoman for Kellogg,
which also makes Frosted Flakes and Special K cereal. We
recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed
and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are
working to remove our ads from that site.
Kellogg decided to blacklist Breitbart from the websites where
its products appear after being contacted by customers who saw
ads for Frosted Flakes and Frosted Mini Wheats, according to
Charles.
AppNexus Inc., one of the biggest digital advertising services,
barred Breitbart from using its ad-serving tools earlier this
month because it felt the publisher violated its hate-speech
rules.
AppNexus scrutinized Breitbarts website after Bannon was given
the White House post. The digital ad firm decided the
publication had breached a policy against content that incites
violence, according to a spokesman for the company. Kellogg
declined to name the third-party company that places its digital
ads.
Brand Exodus
Kellogg is the latest major brand to pull its online advertising
from the news site. Other companies -- including Allstate, Nest,
EarthLink, Warby Parker and SoFi -- have also blacklisted
Breitbart from showing their ads, according to Digiday.
A spokeswoman for Breitbart didnt immediately respond to a
request for comment. Breitbart News Network Chief Executive
Officer Larry Solov said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg
earlier this month that Breitbart has always and continues to
condemn racism and bigotry in any form.
The site had 19.2 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in
October, up from 12.9 million a year ago, according to ComScore
Inc. Breitbart doesnt rely on subscriptions, suggesting that
advertising is a major source of revenue.
Third-Party Services
Many marketers buy online advertising through third-party tech
companies that distribute them widely across the internet, so
they may not be aware of all the websites where they appear. But
they also have the ability to control which websites display
their ads. The creator of the Twitter account Sleeping Giants
has been taking screen shots of ads appearing on Breitbart in an
attempt to pressure those brands to take their ads down.
Breitbart has been widely criticized for incendiary articles,
such as one that warns of Muslim invaders and another that
dubs conservative thinker Bill Kristol a Renegade Jew. One
headline offered this fix for online harassment: Women should
log off. The sites profile has risen since Trump tapped Bannon
to be White House chief strategist earlier this month.
Not all brands are shying away from advertising on Breitbart,
though. After a screenshot showed a Nissan ad on the website,
the automaker said in a statement that it places ads in a
variety of sites in order to reach as many consumers as
possible.
The placement of Nissan advertising is not intended to be a
political commentary and there are no plans to change the
advertising mix at this time, the company said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-29/kellogg-pulls-
ads-from-breitbart-amid-concerns-about-hate-speech
the right-wing news organization whose former chairman Steve
Bannon was tapped as a top adviser to President-elect Donald
Trump.
Brands that advertise on Breitbart have drawn flak in recent
weeks, with activists saying the website espouses racist and
anti-Semitic views. A screen shot showing an advertisement for
Kelloggs Frosted Mini Wheats was part of an online campaign to
get marketers to abandon the site.
We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our
ads do not appear on sites that arent aligned with our values
as a company, said Kris Charles, a spokeswoman for Kellogg,
which also makes Frosted Flakes and Special K cereal. We
recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed
and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are
working to remove our ads from that site.
Kellogg decided to blacklist Breitbart from the websites where
its products appear after being contacted by customers who saw
ads for Frosted Flakes and Frosted Mini Wheats, according to
Charles.
AppNexus Inc., one of the biggest digital advertising services,
barred Breitbart from using its ad-serving tools earlier this
month because it felt the publisher violated its hate-speech
rules.
AppNexus scrutinized Breitbarts website after Bannon was given
the White House post. The digital ad firm decided the
publication had breached a policy against content that incites
violence, according to a spokesman for the company. Kellogg
declined to name the third-party company that places its digital
ads.
Brand Exodus
Kellogg is the latest major brand to pull its online advertising
from the news site. Other companies -- including Allstate, Nest,
EarthLink, Warby Parker and SoFi -- have also blacklisted
Breitbart from showing their ads, according to Digiday.
A spokeswoman for Breitbart didnt immediately respond to a
request for comment. Breitbart News Network Chief Executive
Officer Larry Solov said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg
earlier this month that Breitbart has always and continues to
condemn racism and bigotry in any form.
The site had 19.2 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in
October, up from 12.9 million a year ago, according to ComScore
Inc. Breitbart doesnt rely on subscriptions, suggesting that
advertising is a major source of revenue.
Third-Party Services
Many marketers buy online advertising through third-party tech
companies that distribute them widely across the internet, so
they may not be aware of all the websites where they appear. But
they also have the ability to control which websites display
their ads. The creator of the Twitter account Sleeping Giants
has been taking screen shots of ads appearing on Breitbart in an
attempt to pressure those brands to take their ads down.
Breitbart has been widely criticized for incendiary articles,
such as one that warns of Muslim invaders and another that
dubs conservative thinker Bill Kristol a Renegade Jew. One
headline offered this fix for online harassment: Women should
log off. The sites profile has risen since Trump tapped Bannon
to be White House chief strategist earlier this month.
Not all brands are shying away from advertising on Breitbart,
though. After a screenshot showed a Nissan ad on the website,
the automaker said in a statement that it places ads in a
variety of sites in order to reach as many consumers as
possible.
The placement of Nissan advertising is not intended to be a
political commentary and there are no plans to change the
advertising mix at this time, the company said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-29/kellogg-pulls-
ads-from-breitbart-amid-concerns-about-hate-speech