All of the advertisers that have dropped Laura Ingraham's Fox News show since she mocked Parkland school shooting survivor

TV host apologises for comments, but companies continue to pull ads

Emily Shugerman
New York
Friday 30 March 2018 17:34 BST
Comments
David Hogg says it's a good thing that advertisers are abandoning Laura Ingraham

Advertisers are abandoning a Fox News programme in droves after host Laura Ingraham mocked a Parkland school shooting survivor over his rejection from college.

A wave of companies announced they were pulling ads from the “Ingraham Angle” after Ms Ingraham tweeted that shooting survivor David Hogg was “dinged” by the University of California Los Angeles, where he applied and was rejected.

“Totally predictable given acceptance rates,” she added.

Mr Hogg was one of the students inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a lone gunman opened fire last month, killing 17 students and staff members. He and several of his classmates have become outspoken advocates for gun control in the wake of the shooting.

The teen fired back at Ms Ingraham's missive, tweeting out the names of companies that advertise on her show and asking his nearly 600,000 Twitter followers to call them and complain.

Ms Ingraham eventually apologised, but the damage was done: Within 24 hours of Mr Hogg’s tweet, at least six companies had pulled advertising from the show. More companies announced similar plans in the hours following.

Below is a running list of all the companies that have announced plans to stop advertising with Ms Ingraham.

Nutrish

The pet food company was the first to announce it would pull ads from Ms Ingraham’s show. The company responded to Mr Hogg’s tweet on the matter, writing simply: “We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s programme”.

The company was one of the show's top advertisers, having run ads five times in the 10 days before Ms Ingraham's tweet, according to an analysis from Media Matters.

Nutrish did not respond to The Independent’s request for additional comment.

TripAdvisor

The travel review company was second out of the starting gate, saying in a statement that they had "made a decision to stop advertising on [Ms Ingraham’s programme].”

“We believe strongly in the values of our company, especially the one that says, ‘We are better together’,” the company said. “We also believe Americans can disagree while still being agreeable, and that the free exchange of ideas within a community, in a peaceful manner, is the cornerstone of our democracy.”

The statement continued: “We do not, however, condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster. In our view, these statements focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency.”

WayFair

The home goods company was the third to announce they would be pulling ads from the programme.

“As a company, we support open dialogue and debate on issues,” the company said in a statement. “However, the decision of an adult to personally criticise a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values.”

Hulu

The popular video streaming service also responded to Mr Hogg’s tweet, writing: “We’d like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham’s show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully.”

Hulu did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Stitch Fix

A spokesperson for Stitch Fix, an online personal shopping service, confirmed that the company would no longer be advertising on Ms Ingraham's show.

Jenny Craig

The weight loss company has “decided to take steps to discontinue advertising on [Ms Ingraham’s] show,” a spokesperson said.

The company was another top advertiser, running advertisements on the show five times in the days before Ms Ingraham's tweet.

'No more': Watch David Hogg's incredible March For Our Lives Speech in full

Stelara

A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson, which produces the arthritis treatment drug Stelara, said the company had pulled advertising from Ms Ingraham’s show.

Stelara also advertised on the show five times in the 10 days before the tweet.

Nestle

A spokesperson for the international food and drink giant said the company had no plans to buy ads on the show in the future.

Expedia

A representative for the travel company told the New York Times it had recently pulled advertising from the show, but declined to say when. A spokesperson told The Independent the company would not comment on such matters.

The Independent has reached out to dozens of other companies that advertise on Ms Ingraham's programme, including Liberty Mutual, AT&T, and Bayer pharmaceuticals. We will update if they respond.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in