StopBeck.com, the campaign to throttle advertising on the Fox News Channel Glenn Beck program, is claiming achievement of a total advertising blackout on the United Kingdom version of the show. They say there have been five advertiser-free airings in a row.
The claim comes from James Rucker, head of ColorOfChange.org which is spearheading the anti-Beck campaign. According to StopBeck.com, “Fox News Channel was forced to fill commercial breaks with news headlines and local weather updates from its U.K.-based sister network, Sky News, instead of paid advertisements.”
The organization claims to have added to its list of companies steering clear of the US version of the program as well, bringing that total to well over 100. The latest are said to be Allstate Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Best Western International, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (maker of Flomax), Brother International Corporation, Hear Music, Idaho Potato Commission, Intersections Inc., Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School, Marriott International, Nestlé USA, Republic of Macedonia, Starkist Co., United Healthcare, USFidelis, Volkswagen and Western Union.
“We’re incredibly thrilled that StopBeck.com has taken our campaign and successfully executed it internationally,” said Rucker. “This is a huge blow against Glenn Beck. As we continue our fight against those that support Beck domestically, we will use this victory as further proof that more and more companies are taking a stand against his racial demagoguery.”
RBR-TVBR observation: This campaign kicked off last August 2009 over remarks Beck made on somebody else’s show in July 2009. It’s been both amazingly effective and it’s had unusual staying power. Fox has always maintained that it hasn’t lost any advertisers, just shifted them to other dayparts. But you have to wonder how much longer this will go on.
