Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest advertisers on the planet. In 2015, the most recent year for which there is data, J&J spent $2.6 billion in advertising worldwide.
Fox News just lost a small but symbolically significant piece of that pie, courtesy of firebrand conservative host Laura Ingraham’s very cheap and very public shot at Parkland massacre survivor David Hogg on Wednesday.
“David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it…” Ingraham tweeted. In response, Hogg took the high road and retaliated by calling for advertisers to boycott her prime time show on the cable news network.
He compiled a list of her advertisers and tweeted them out to his followers (with helpful retweets from fellow Parkland survivors) to put pressure on the advertisers. The internet picked up on his boycott call, and since this morning eight separate advertisers have pulled from her show.
Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #
Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 29, 2018
The Huffington Post was the first to report that Johnson & Johnson planned to “pull advertising from Ms. Ingraham’s show,” making them them the eighth company to join the boycott Thursday.
Just before going to press, online TV giant Hulu announced they would be ditching Ingraham’s television show as well.
That brought the total number of companies dropping Ingraham’s show to seven in less than 24 hours:
1. To review, seven companies have pulled their ads from Laura Ingraham's show following her tweet attacking Parkland survivor David Hogg
Nutrish
TripAdvisor
Wayfair
Expedia
Nestlé
Johnson & Johnson
Huluhttps://t.co/rcZwD4fgzD— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 30, 2018
Earlier Thursday, Laura Ingraham issued a half hearted apology in a pathetically transparent attempt to stop the bleeding, but it hasn’t worked as advertisers continue to flee her show.
Politics aside, it doesn’t get much lower than a grown woman with her own media platform launching a personal attack on a teenaged survivor of a school shooting massacre. It’s petty, it’s cheap, and Ingraham deserves all the public scorn and revenue losses she’s been receiving.
