DISQUS

spsmyth · 4 months ago

Of course he has the right to say anything he wants, but think about it, you're the marketing manager at Sargento Cheese and you see Beck's poisoning Nancy Pelosi skit. Would you want your brand associated with that?

claynewton · 4 months ago

I think that this is one of the greatest things to happen, in both cases. In the case of Maher, that guy takes punches for being extreme, and they add or turn into his message. In the case of Beck, it helps to expose how far he is from being aligned with popular sentiment.

In either case, it ultimately broadens the dialog. No one's speech is being suppressed, in the worst cases it will just change mediums.

Greg Hollingsworth · 4 months ago

SPSmyth: Not necessarily, but let's look at this another way, in terms of viewer demographics.

The people that would be most offended by Beck's comments, are most likely not watching Fox News anyway, in fact my guess is that most of them heard about the comments via the internet. So, what is the likelihood that those folks would even see a Sargento commercial in direct relation to the Glenn Beck show?

I understand what these companies are doing, honestly I do, I work in marketing, and you know what, I'd probably do the same thing. But...if Sargento (or Progressive or any of the others) is so afraid of alienating a certain set of viewers (namely those who would not be watching The Glenn Beck Show to begin with), why are they advertising on that channel at all?

Listen, my point is merely this. We no longer live in a time where TV shows are directly sponsored by companies, advertisers choose when and where to run ads not based on corporate philosophical alignment, they choose their placements based on ratings. We're not talking about the Wonderful World of Disney here, we're talking about a show on a cable television network that probably doesn't even sell it's own ad space, they sell it as a run of network, although they obviously have control over when their ads won't play.

None of these advertisers have pulled their ads from Fox News, they've simply asked that they not be run during Beck's show, which means that the network will backfill those slots with other folks who are less concerned about the potential backlash or who purchase slots on a remnant basis (meaning that they tell the network, if you can't fill the slot, run our ad).

As I said in the post, I am not trying to defend what Glenn Beck said (which was immensely stupid and patently ignorant), but it's not the first time a commentator has said something stupid (and Bill Maher is not the only other example). Yet most of the time it's not noticed or reported. These examples exist more than anything because of their timing. Maher for saying something stupid 6 days after the first foreign terrorist attack on our country, and Beck's being just over six months after the election of our first black president.

I don't watch Glenn Beck's show, never have and never will, so I can't tell you if this kind of inanity is common place with him (although he seems to get on the news a lot for this kind of drama). I also do not buy Sargento cheese (well, maybe occasionally), have insurance through either Progressive, State Farm or GEICO, I buy generic baby wash for my 2 yr old, and I have no idea if I have any Protcer & Gamble or SC Johnson products in my home right now (although it's possible).

Maybe it's because of my background, but I do not associate the commercials that run during a tv show with the content of that show. I do not see them as an endorsement of anything, they are no different than billboards, or magazine articles. They are about reach, not sponsorship.

Greg Hollingsworth · 4 months ago

Clay: The problem is that speech is being suppressed, maybe not in a direct fashion such as you can't say that we're shutting down your show. It's in a different, and slightly more malicious way.

Basically what is happening is that in order for Glenn Beck (or Bill Maher had he not been canceled so quickly) to make enough money for the network to stay on the air (the network that is directly responsible for putting him on the air, and by giving him his own show endorses at the very least his status as a representative of enough people to have a large audience) he will now have to temper his opinions and beliefs. The people that pay to keep his show on the air are telling him to shape up or ship out. Essentially, it says, you can be controversial, just not too controversial.

Like I said, I don't agree with what he said, but I guarantee you that the pulling of these advertisements has less to do with product identification and more to do with the fact that these advertisers know full well that his ratings may very well go into the tank and they want to make sure that their ads aren't running when they do.