Last Thursday, Fox News host Sean Hannity offered a defense of sorts for Alabama senate Candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct. During Hannity’s segment, he went so far as to question the motives of the female accusers in a similar manner as his former colleague Bill O’Reilly, who was ousted from FOX over sexual harassment allegations. It turns out that that kind of approach doesn’t sit well with advertisers.
As of Tuesday morning, 11 different corporate sponsors have pulled their ads from Hannity’s primetime Fox News show. This includes Hebrew National, Reddi Wip, Hubble Contacts, Volvo, 23andMe, Nature’s Bounty, Keurig, Realtor.com and more. Elsewhere, HelloFresh have announced that any ads of theirs seen during Hannity’s airtime were an “error.”
Fox News has clawed its way back from an early year ratings slump following the O’Reilly and Ailes scandals to reclaim the title of most-watched news network. However, this advertiser exodus isn’t going to help their reputation and it’s very possible that even more will follow.
Hi Ali –
We removed Hannity from our advertising plans. We will be sure to provide your feedback with our team. Our advertising is not intended to be an endorsement of or sponsorship of any particular program. Thank you.— Hebrew National (@HebrewNational) November 13, 2017
Hi – We removed Hannity from our advertising plans. We will share your feedback with our team. Thank you.
— Reddi-wip (@RealReddiWip) November 13, 2017
Spread the word! Confirmed: @hubblecontacts (which was actually one of Hannity's most frequent advertisers) says that they have "no future plans to advertise on Hannity."
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) November 13, 2017
We’ve received inquiries RE: advertising on Hannity. We are not running TV advertising on Hannity. We continue to closely evaluate where we advertise.
— 23andMe (@23andMe) November 10, 2017
Hello. We can confirm that we do not have advertisements running on this program.
— Nature's Bounty (@NaturesBounty) November 11, 2017
Hello, we have not ran advertising on this program for months and have no plans to do so in the future.
— E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley (@etrade) November 10, 2017
Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show.
— Keurig (@Keurig) November 11, 2017
Good evening @McDonalds. Are you aware your ads are currently running during Sean Hannity's show? Hannity attacks women that speak out and has defended sexually preying on children. Many companies already removed ads. Were yours run in error?
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) November 13, 2017
Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone has started a campaign to pressure advertisers to drop Hannity. He launched a similar effort back in May when Hannity reported on the unsolved 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
Hannity’s viewers, however, have responded to the general backlash by launching their own boycott campaign against Keurig. They have sent Hannity videos online of themselves smashing Keurig machines, which the Fox News personality has supported.
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/929877694526906369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewrap.com%2Fsean-hannity-fox-news-loses-11-sponsors-roy-moore-defense%2F
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/929890847956652033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewrap.com%2Fsean-hannity-fox-news-loses-11-sponsors-roy-moore-defense%2F
Fox News did not immediately respond to request for comment on Tuesday.
