Row brews as drinks firms pull advertising from GB News
Drinks companies Kopparberg and Grolsch have joined a number of other brands in suspending advertising on GB News in the first 48 hours since its launch.
Swedish cider producer Kopparberg withdrew its adverts from the channel, which launched on Sunday evening, after claiming they ran “without our knowledge or consent” and that it was undertaking a review of the channel’s content.
A post on the its Twitter account said: “Kopparberg is a drink for everyone and we have immediately suspended our ads from this channel pending further review of its content.”
GB News, whose chairman is former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, above, has come under fire in some quarters for its pledge to challenge “woke culture”, with comparisons made to US broadcaster Fox News.
Campaign group Stop Funding Hate has been campaigning for advertisers to shun the newly-launched channel by calling them out on Twitter and after Kopparberg became the first company to pull its promos several other firms followed suit, including Ikea, Nivea and the Open University.
Andrew Neil hit back at IKEA and its ‘”criminal” former French boss Jean-Louis Baillot, saying “IKEA has decided to boycott GB News because of our alleged values. Here are IKEA’s values — a French CEO who is a criminal with a two year suspended jail sentence for spying on staff.”
He also retweeted messages accusing corporations of making fools of themselves by pulling ads.
Grolsch, which is owned by Japan’s Asahi, said in a statement that it “prides itself on core values of inclusion and openness to all people, and we want to be clear that we do not associate ourselves with any platforms or outlets that go against these values”.
“We will do everything we possibly can to ensure Grolsch does not appear on this channel again,” the statement added.
GB News presenter and former Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry stoked up the row with Koppaberg by tweeting: “Imagine being @KopparbergUK and saying with a straight face that ‘you are a drink for everyone’ and then wanting to pull ads from a section of viewers. Either you are indeed a ‘drink for everyone’ or you’re not.”
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