Stuart Elliott: Advertisers' Stampede From Ingraham Underlines New Madison Avenue

It turned out that Ingraham was indulging in selfpromotion riffing on the title of one of her own books from 2003 called quotShut Up and Singquot subtitled quotHow Elites from Hollywood Politics and the UN are Subverting Americaquot amp160Yes Ingraham has been warbling her tune of smug indignation for a while long enough you39d think to learn that you shouldn39t mess with kidsShe was taught that lesson last week after a score of advertisers fled her Fox News show The Ingraham Angle in the wake of a tweet mocking David Hogg one of the survivors of the Parkland Fla high school massacre In sharing a link to an article on a rightwing website Daily Wire about Hogg a high school senior who39s 17 years old Ingraham wrote punctuation hers quotDavid Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges to Which He Applied and whines about itquotThe reaction was stunningly swift quotSo IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers amp8230 Asking for a friendquot Hogg wrote on Twitter where he has more than 720000 followers After the organization Media Matters for America shared a list with him he tweeted again with this advice quotPick a number 112 contact the company next to that quotAnd boy did the Twitterverse comply a day later the advertiser withdrawals began followed by a sort of apology from Ingraham quotin the spirit of Holy Weekquot which failed to stop the stampedeThe marketers pulling their commercials from The Ingraham Angle include mainstay bluechip brands such as Bayer Honda Johnson ampamp Johnson Liberty Mutual Nestle and Office Depot Office Max along with newer names like Expedia Nutrish Stitch Fix TripAdvisor and WayfairEven Hulu partly owned by Fox News39 parent 21st Century Fox joined the exodus meaning that one part of Rupert Murdoch39s media empire is putting the kibosh on another That 50 percent more advertisers bid adieu to Ingraham than the dozen Hogg had requested is like a reallife equivalent of the old joke about economists predicting nine out of the last five recessionsWhat39s no joke is the fierce debate unleashed by Ingraham Hogg and the advertisers indicative of the damage done recently to our national discourse by a linecrossing President who talks and tweets like a mashup of Don Rickles and Roy Cohn The idea that grownups especially those in public powerful positions have no qualms about bullying or lobbing personal insults at minors with whom they disagree is tremendously depressingAlso depressing are the tuttuts from commentators wringing their hands about the fate of quotfree speechquot in the wake of Madison Avenue39s retreat from Ingraham39s show For instance Brian Stelter of CNN39s Reliable Sources called it quotdangerousquot adding quotMy view is let39s not shut down anyone39s right to speak let39s meet their comments with more speechquotEveryone to be sure is entitled to free speech but it has consequences And they39re not entitled to hate speech or speech such as Ingraham39s that was in essence punching down Is it really free speech when a cardcarrying member of the media elite publicly and personally humiliates a child When does speech spill over into abuseAdditionally not everyone is entitled to his or her own network TV show nor to a roster of sponsors to support that show39s production and talent costsWhat about the advertisers39 right to free speech Or their right to choose which programming will carry their ads Should a marketer be compelled to run commercials in a show Should a sponsor be compelled to stay in a show that suddenly isn39t what it used to be because for example the host did something they dislike or deem wrongIncreasingly marketers are deciding that today39s consumers want to know not only about their products but also about the values of the companies making and selling those products quotMedia strategy has changedquot Mark McLaughlin wrote in replying to a Facebook post of mine about Ingraham quotContext is becoming more important than ever because today39s young adult consumers hold brands accountable for what they do not just what they arequotThus I believe it wasn39t only Ingraham39s tweet about Hogg that doomed her with the advertisers It was also her track record that came into play when they were assessing whether to heed the requests from him and his followers to leave her showIngraham39s years of snarky commentary didn39t help most recently epitomized in February when she told LeBron James and Kevin Durant to quotshut up and dribblequot Hogg by the way has asked Ingraham to apologize to them declaring quotA bully is a bully and it39s important to stand up to themquotIt39s also crucial to note this isn39t the first time that advertisers are siding with the kids of Parkland amp160I39d make a strong case that many fewer brands would be exiting The Ingraham Angle if it wasn39t for all the major marketers Avis Delta Enterprise Hertz MetLife and United among them that recently cut ties with the National Rifle Association They proved that consumerfocused firms can stand up to controversy and live to tell about it and perhaps emerge stronger as a resultIngraham hasn39t discussed any of this on the air but she did announce at the end of her show last Friday a weeklong vacation that she described as previously planned That show and the one before carried ads from only a handful of major brands the commercial time mostly was filled with house ads and lesser lights such as Beachescom Interstate Batteries KT Tape My Pillow and the San Diego ZooHer vacation brought to mind what happened when Bill O39Reilly once Fox News39 biggest star began hemorrhaging dozens of his advertisers last year O39Reilly announced that he was headed off on a preplanned vacation and never came back So it was fascinating to see him come to her defense this week claiming on his website that her quotsponsor boycott is not some spontaneous uprising by companiesquot but rather quotis being directed by powerful shadowy radical groups who want Laura Ingraham off the air Same thing happened to mequotIf I were Ingraham I wouldn39t find that reassuringEditor39s note Look for the next Stuart Elliott Report on Wednesday May 3Photo by Kayle Kaupanger UnsplashClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Stuart Elliott: Advertisers' Stampede From Ingraham Underlines New Madison Avenue

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