Tucker Carlson Runs No Ads From Blue Chip National Advertisers on Tuesday Night

Tucker Carlson Runs No Ads From Blue Chip National Advertisers on Tuesday Night

Already mired in an advertiser backlash for saying last December that immigration makes America “poorer and dirtier,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson is once again the focus of widespread outrage over unearthed comments from appearances on shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio show that featured Carlson describing women as “extremely primitive,” defending statutory rape and calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys.”

During Monday’s broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight after Media Matters for America released its first round of audio clips on Sunday night, Carlson declared he wouldn’t “bow to the mob” and that the network stands behind him, something a Fox News spokesperson confirmed later. His advertisers, however, were a whole different story, as Carlson’s ad time was slashed to 13 minutes 28 seconds across four ad breaks, with nearly four minutes devoted to station promos and an additional four minutes taken up by direct-response advertiser (and Fox News fan) MyPillow.

If there was a thought that things couldn’t get worse from an advertiser perspective, Tuesday night proved that notion wrong. With additional audio clips released over the previous 24 hours, Carlson called for Media Matters to be investigated by the IRS while claiming he was being targeted as part of a leftist authoritarian plot akin to the Holocaust. At the same time, his show was bereft of any blue chip national advertisers while his ad time was cut by an additional two minutes.

Based on an analysis of Carlson’s program Tuesday night, Fox News only ran commercials from six separate advertisers, not counting local ads, station promos and public service announcements.

Notably, there were no ads from pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which had run commercials for its products, such as Claritin and One-a-Day vitamins, every night on March until Tuesday.

Instead, Carlson’s commercials were limited to MyPillow, anti-virus software seller PC Matic, a male supplement, HearingAssist, PODS and online boot seller Tecovas.

We have reached out to Bayer to see if they have changed their advertising strategy regarding Carlson’s show in the wake of this latest controversy. As of publication, we had not heard back but will update this post if they respond.

Two companies, meanwhile, have publicly announced they will not be advertising on Tucker Carlson Tonight following the resurfacing of these comments: bedding manufacturer SHEEX and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The pressure on Fox News’ advertisers won’t likely go away any time soon, either. On Wednesday, Media Matters organized a protest outside the network’s New York studio as Fox News attempted to woo advertisers and convince them not to jump ship in the wake of controversies from Carlson and fellow opinion host Jeanine Pirro.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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