Crain's: Premiere Declines To Say Whether Advertisers Have Come Back To Limbaugh

by Media Matters staff

A May 13 Crain's New York article reported that a spokeswoman for Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates The Rush Limbaugh Show, declined to say whether advertisers that had dropped the program following Limbaugh's misogynistic attacks on Sandra Fluke had returned to the program. From Crain's:

Last week, Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey told analysts that the advertiser boycott--which began after Mr. Limbaugh called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a slut--has cost the company "a couple million bucks."

The Rush Limbaugh Show airs on 38 Cumulus-owned stations, including WABC-AM in New York, and altogether on some 600 stations around the country. 

[...]

"[The show] is not back to normal," said Angelo Carusone, campaign director for Media Matters, the liberal group that has led the boycott. The organization monitors over-the-air broadcasts of the Limbaugh show in 15 markets, including New York. It has found ads from U.S. government agencies and show stalwarts like identity-protection service LifeLock making up for the decline in national advertising. There's also a lot of repetition, showing "a reduction in the range of advertisers," Mr. Carusone added.

A spokeswoman for the show's distributor, Premiere Networks, declined to say if advertisers have come back, but insisted that "many of the same national sponsors who have had great success with the program" can still be heard. She added that "several new national sponsors have signed on."

More Advertisers Exclude Ads From The Rush Limbaugh Show

by Media Matters staff

As part of the continuing exodus of advertisers from The Rush Limbaugh Show, Arby's and Proactiv both confirmed they will no longer run ads during Rush Limbaugh's show. Ads from both advertisers recently started running during Limbaugh's program.

While Arby's noted that they "do not buy ads on national radio programs," the company confirmed on Twitter that its ads would no longer run during Limbaugh's show, advising that it is taking "the necessary steps to discontinue advertising during this show":

In a message sent to Media Matters, Proactiv explained the recent ads were "run in error," as it had previously asked to be pulled from inventory around Limbaugh's show; it confirmed that it will work with the network to ensure that its ads are excluded from Limbaugh's program going forward:

Arby's and Proactiv are the latest advertisers to publicly state that they will not advertise on The Rush Limbaugh Show following Limbaugh's three-day attack on  Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student. Limbaugh's attacks came after Fluke spoke before elected officials about the various ways her classmates rely on prescription birth control, including a story about a friend who takes it to manage ovarian cysts.

A list of all the companies that have issued public statements confirming that they will no longer advertise on Limbaugh's show is available here.

EXCLUSIVE: 140 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh

By Judd Legum/Think Progress

ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh’s program. The advertisers have also requested to be excluded from other right-wing hosts including Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. According to the memo, the listed companies’ advertisements should be excluded from these programs because they have been “deemed to be offensive.”

The existence of the memo was first reported over the weekend by Radio-info.com, an industry newsletter. Radio-info did not publish the full list of companies. The memo was posted website of the Traffic Directors Guild of America, an association of professionals who distribute paid advertisements to radio stations. It was quickly deleted but ThinkProgress obtained a copy from a Google snapshot of the site taken on March 9.

Previously, ThinkProgress has reported that 50 companies requested their advertising be pulled from the Rush Limbaugh show following his sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke. The publication of the memo adds an additional 91 companies to the list of companies that have dropped Limbaugh:

21st Century Insurance • Hotels.com • Rite Aid • Ace Hardware • Honda • Robitussin • Acura • IBM • Sam Adams • Advance Auto Parts • Icy Hot • Sam’s Club • Advil (All products) • Intuit/Small Business • Schiff – Digestive Advantage • Alacer/Emergen-C • Schiff – Mega Red • Allegra (all products) • Johnson & Johnson (All Brands) • Schiff – Move Free • Kohl’s • Schiff – Sustenex • Ally Bank • La Quinta • Scotts Miracle-Gro (all products) • American Express • Lifetime • Autozone • Little Caesars • Sony • Lowe’s • State Farm • British Petroleum • Luxottica • Staples • Bullfrog Sunblock • Macy’s • Sterling/Kay Jared Jewelers • Caltrate • MasterCard • Subway • Centrum • McDonalds • Takeda Uloric • Chapstick • Midas • The Home Depot • Clorox (Pinesol/Homecare) • Napa Auto Parts • ThermaCare • Cortizone • National Realtor • Toyota • DeVry • NBC-TV • Discover Card • Office Depot • Twinings of London • Domino’s Pizza • Office Max • Tyson/Wright Brand Bacon • Exxon/Exxon Mobil • One Main Financial • Unisom • Farmers Insurance • United Healthcare • Ford • Orkin • U.S. Army • Outback • U. S. Postal Service • General Motors (All products -GM Certified Service • Chevy • Onstar • Cadillac • etc) • Preparation H • Visa • Gold Bond (all products • ProNutrients (all products) • Walgreens • Grainger • Progressive Insurance • Wal-Mart • Green Mountain Coffee • Prudential • Wells Fargo • Hallmark • Radio Shack • Wrigley • H&R Block • Rent-A-Center • Yahoo!

You can view a copy of the memo below:

Premiere Networks List Of Advertisers Asking Not To Advertise On Limbaugh And Other Right-Wing Hosts

UPDATE

The post initially listed 141 sponsors. Boston Beer and Sam Adams were listed separately but are the same company.

Rush Limbaugh's Advertiser Exodus

by Jeremy Holden/Media Matters

On March 8, WABC's online feed aired Rush Limbaugh's radio show almost exclusively with unpaid public service announcements and included significant amounts of dead air space, as only nine paid advertisements were broadcast during three hours of programming.

In the week since Limbaugh came under widespread condemnation for his misogynistic attacks on a Georgetown University law school student, at least 50 advertisers have canceled ads running during his program.

Those ad spaces are increasingly going to free public service announcements for organizations ranging from the New York Office of Emergency Management, the United Negro College Fund, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- 77 such PSAs aired on March 8, after a week of advertisers fleeing Limbaugh's show.

The decline in paid advertising in one week has been precipitous. 

Media Matters verified 59 paid advertisers from WABC's online broadcast on March 1 -- the day Limbaugh called Georgetown University Law Center student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute." No public service announcements aired that day. As recently as March 6, WABC was running no public service announcements during Limbaugh's show. The following day, as advertisers continued to pull out, more than half of the ads were PSAs created by the Ad Council.

Limbaugh has tried to downplay the imapct of his loss of advertisers, even as radio and advertising experts warn that his comments may have triggered a long-term exodus. 

Rush Limbaugh’s Advertisers Facing Social Media Firestorm

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

Rush Limbaugh’s latest misogynistic tirade against Georgetown University Law Student Sandra Fluke may be the last straw for many of the shock jock’s corporate sponsors. Thousands of angry customers have been inundating dozens of Limbaugh’s corporate sponsors, demanding that they cut ties with the program.

So far, Sleep Number, The Sleep Train, Quicken Loans, Legal Zoom, Citrix, Carbonite, ProFlowers, Tax Resolution, AOL, Bonobos, Sears, Allstate Insurance, Sensa, Bare Escentuals, Vitacost, Hadeed Carpet, Thompson Creek Windows, PolyCom, Service Magic, AccuQuote Life Insurance, Geico, John Deere, Stamps.com, St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Bethesda Sedation Dentistry, Cascades Dental, Philadelphia Orchestra, Goodwill Industries, Heart & Body Extract,Netflix, Downeast Energy, Capitol One, JCPenney, Matrix Direct, Reputation Rhino, Consolidated Credit, Constant Contact, RSVP Discount Beverage, Cunningham Security, Regal Assets, Freedom Debt Relief, Norway Savings Bank, Portland Ovations, The Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington and O’Reilly Auto Parts have pulled ads from the program.

ThinkProgress is collecting reactions from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook on Storify. Here’s a look at some responses so far:

Other companies though have been slow to react, or are simply ignoring mounting feedback.

We need to take a stand now against his revolting behavior. Sign our petition and let Sandra Fluke know that you are on her side.

UPDATE

An earlier version of this post listed the Cleveland Cavaliers as one of the companies that dropped Limbaugh, based on a report from WFNY. Although the Cavaliers have the same owner as Quicken Loans, WFNY’s report was subsequently removed. It does not appear that the Cavaliers advertised on Limbaugh’s show

Customer pressure forces firms to drop advertising on Limbaugh program

By Muriel Kane/Raw Story

Appeals for a boycott of sponsors of Rush Limbaugh’s radio program appear to be paying off.

Mattress retailer Sleep Train was the first to drop Limbaugh’s program after he called law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” for testifying against allowing employers to opt out of providing birth control under employees’ health insurance.

That firm is now being joined by other companies that appear to be wary of the negative publicity surrounding the Fluke affair. Sleep Train tweeted on Friday, “Recent comments by Rush Limbaugh do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program.”

A representative of Quicken Loans similarly tweeted, “Due to continued inflammatory comments– along w/valuable feedback from clients & team members– QL has suspended ads on Rush Limbaugh program.”

Even the Cleveland Cavaliers have now dropped Limbaugh, with the basketball team’s majority owner also citing Limbaugh’s “inflammatory comments.”

Other firms have replieed to customer inquiries by saying that they are reevaluating their advertising. According to Think Progress, however, several companies have yet to respond in any way to the controversy, including Carbonite, LegalZoom.com, and AutoZone.

So Who's Still Advertising On Beck?

by Media Matters staff

At least 300 advertisers have reportedly dropped their ads from Glenn Beck's Fox News program since he called President Obama a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Here are his April 19 sponsors, in the order they appeared:

• Rosland Capital
• Lifestyle Lift
• Solutions from Science
• News Corp. (Fox News' Hannity)
• The Foundation For a Better Life
• Goldline International, Inc.
• LegalZoom.com
• Joint Juice
• Select Quote
• Easy Water
• News Corp. (Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier)
• American Petroleum Institute
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• Merit Financial
• American Petroleum Institute
• News Corp. (Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor)
• Lear Capital
• Lifestyle Lift
• News Corp. (Fox News' Huckabeel)
• ITMTrading.com
• News Corp. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Tax Masters
• Survival Seed Bank (Solutions from Science)
• PC Pitstop (PCMatic.com)
• News Corp. (Fox News' Glenn Beck)