It's time (again) for corporate sponsors to do the right thing

Stop supporting platforms and networks and teams that push racism, sexism, hatred.

Well, yesterday was a year, wasn’t it? 

Once again, the media industry finds itself having a conversation about the role advertisers play in supporting a news network that promotes racism, sexism, and hatred. 

(Image via AP)

Last night, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson said this to his 4 million viewers (via Media Matters):

Sorry for the painful video but it's real. That man later died. At one point, the 17-year-old who has now been charged tried to run from the mob. He tripped and fell in the middle of the street. A man ran up and smashed him in the head with a skateboard. The 17-year-old then fired his gun. 

...

So, what does that amount to? We're unsure, a court will decide whether what you just saw qualifies as self-defense. As of tonight, we really don't have more details. We do know why it all happened, though. Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it. People in charge from the governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn.

So are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would? 

“Maintain order.” 

Just so we’re clear: A TV personality who has the ear of the president justified murder; murdering people is not maintaining order. 

Two months after an advertiser exodus from Carlson’s high-rated show, we have to ask ourselves, yet again, why would you advertise on a show and a network that has shown, through words and actions, that its vision for America is not compatible with what you as a company believe in, stand for, and communicate?

I wrote this in June after Carlson came back from a vacation after finding out his head writer was leaving racist messages across the internet:

Time and time again, we talk about “brand safety.” The strongest proof that “brand safety” is bullshit: advertisers continue to spend tons of money on the network, year after year, knowing precisely the damage Fox News has done. 

Fox News is supported through advertising revenue, and whether it’s through scatter or through upfronts, companies who spend on Fox News stick their fingers in their ears so as to not hear the dangerous messages coming from the network’s stars. 

In an Ad Age piece from April:

But since then, [Fox News’s ad sales chief Jeff] Collins says advertisers have been looking to take advantage of the heightened viewership levels by buying into some of the networks more informative programming, like its town halls, and uplifting content out of its new America Together initiative.

While on digital platforms, some brands are blocking terms related to the coronavirus, Collins says this behavior hasn’t impacted TV advertising.

There’s been an influx in younger-skewing advertisers to the channel, he says. Quick-service restaurants, which is not a large category for the news network, has become a much bigger player. Over the last few weeks there have been five or six QSR restaurants that have bought ad time to promote delivery or drive-thru, Collins says.

(Image via Kevin C. Cox/Getty)

Just a few hours before Carlson took to the air to wrap vigilante murder in the American flag, the Milwaukee Bucks exhibited true patriotism, following the lead of the WNBA, which has been at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The Bucks did not play basketball last night. The Bucks did not play Game 5 of a playoff game last night. The Bucks instead chose, on the anniversary of when Colin Kaepernick first got noticed during a preseason NFL game protesting police brutality against Black people, to effectively strike; to say, we cannot play basketball while the city that’s adorned on our chests continues to kill Black people. 

Michael Harriot, of the Root, writes:

In the last 244 years, one month and twenty-two days, no one has sacrificed their safety, well-being and their lives to perfect this union more than Black Americans. This is our shit. Not only did our ancestors build this country by investing blood and brow-sweat, but they are also the only group in our nation’s history who did this without the expectation of receiving dividends.

The Bucks didn’t show up; and then neither did their competition, the Orlando Magic. And then the Lakers, Trail Blazers, Rockets, and Thunder, the other playoff teams. And even Major League Baseball, a sport that has only 68 Black players out of 882 total players, saw six ball clubs walk out.

Watch today for corporate sponsors of the NBA and MLB to throw support to the players, following the lead of league owners. 

In today’s New York Times:

The strike “shows that this issue of excessive force of police and Black Lives Matter is not going away,” said Karen Boykin-Towns, a senior counselor at the communications firm Sard Verbinnen and a vice chair of the NAACP’s national board of directors. “If you’re the C.E.O. of a Fortune 500 company, you can’t just sit back and not do anything,” she said. “Employees are seeing this, and they’re outraged.”  

While at the same time, the NFL has a problem with the Washington Football Team, as the Washington Post broke a story that shows how the team has a culture where:

women say they have been marginalized, discriminated against and exploited. The employees also described an atmosphere in which bullying and demeaning behavior by management created a climate of fear that allowed abusive behavior to continue unchecked.

And as The Athletic argues, the NFL never had its #MeToo moment so maybe the Washington Football Team can be the start. 

On the heels of the team’s name change, one that was heavily pushed by corporate sponsors FedEx and Nike among others, corporations aligning themselves with the Washington Football Team have to ask themselves, once again, “why”? 

The Summer of 2020 has been a Protest Summer, which is just a sliver of the Protest Era that will define the Trump administration. And as companies find themselves now in the middle of a several discussions involving race, class, health, you name it, they have a choice: take action to create internal policies that address systemic racism or not; take action with their advertising dollars by not supporting tech platforms and TV networks that either pedal lies, hate and disinformation or serve as a conduit for such messages to spread, or don’t. 

We talk about Corporate America a lot; if you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably in Corporate America. Now’s the time to pick our heads up from the sand and make the changes we need, both internally and externally. We can’t keep having these conversations about companies supporting the worst aspects of society that ultimately result in no action. 

As Chris Webber said last night: “If not now, when?”

Thank you for allowing me in your inbox, today and every day. If you have tips, or thoughts on the newsletter drop me a line. Or you can follow me on Twitter. If you liked this edition of the newsletter, please consider sharing across your social networks. And to the reporters and news organizations covering the whirlwind of news this week (and every week), thank you.

Pete Seeger, “Which Side Are You On?”

Some interesting links:

For media folks:

• TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer Resigns (NYT)

• Oh My, Bella Thorne Has Broken OnlyFans' Record By Earning Over $1 Million In Less Than A Day (BuzzFeed)

• AT&T's WarnerMedia, Xandr Pair Up to Sell Digital Ads to Political Advertisers (Reuters)

• The Event Industry Is Being Confronted By Its Napster Moment (Skift)

• Facebook warns Apple’s iOS 14 could shave more than 50% from Audience Network revenue (CNBC)

For journalism folks:

• Kellyanne Conway undermined the truth like no other Trump official. And journalists enabled her. (WaPo)

For politics folks:

• Immigrants in Trump-Led Ceremony Didn’t Know They Would Appear at RNC (WSJ)

• Hits and misses from the RNC, night 3 (CNN)