NEW YORK — Glenn Beck returns to Fox News Channel on Monday after a vacation with fewer firms willing to advertise on his show than when he left, part of the fallout from calling President Barack Obama a racist.
A total of 33 Fox advertisers, which includes Wal-Mart Shops Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck’s show, according to the firms and ColorofChange.org, a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him. That’s much more than a dozen a lot more than had been identified a week ago.
Even though it is unclear what effect, if any, this will ultimately have on Fox and Beck, it is already creating advertisers skittish about hawking their wares within the most opinionated cable Television shows.
The Clorox Co., a former Beck advertiser, now says that “we do not want to be associated with inflammatory speech utilized by either liberal or conservative talk show hosts.” The maker of bleach and household cleaners stated in a statement that it has decided not to advertise on political talk shows.
The shows present a dilemma for advertisers, who usually like a “safe” environment for their messages. The Olbermanns, Hannitys, O’Reillys, Maddows and Becks of the Television globe are a lot more most likely to say some thing that will anger a viewer, who might take it out on sponsors.
They also host the most-watched programs on their networks.
“This is a excellent illustration of that conundrum,” said Wealthy Hallabran, spokesman for UPS Shops, which he stated has temporarily halted getting ads on Fox News Channel as a complete.
Beck can bring the eyeballs. With the wellness care debate raising political temperatures, his show had its greatest week ever appropriate ahead of his vacation, averaging 2.4 million viewers each day, according to Nielsen Media Research.