UPDATE: Snapple, Sonic & Chipotle Pull Advertising From KRXQ
June 4, 2009 by Andy Marra, Senior Media Strategist @ GLAAD
In the wake of KRXQ radio hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States not apologizing for their offensive comments against transgender children, individuals continue to take action and share their concerns with the station.
You can listen to last week’s segment here and their follow-up to the controversy here.
On June 2, GLAAD issued a Call to Action and today renewed its call for supporters to let KRXQ know that Rob and Arnie should apologize for their remarks. We have also been blogging about this story (here and here).
Business leaders have also become alarmed by last week’s defamatory radio segment and are distancing themselves from the shock jocks and their dehumanizing remarks. Individuals are utilizing social networking tools like Facebook to voice their concerns and alert companies of the harmful diatribe.
At 1:33pm, I received an email from the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. The company is responsible for well, Dr. Pepper and Snapple along with 40+ brands including 7UP, Country Time, Crush, Hawaiian Punch, Mott’s, Orangina, Welch’s and Yoo-hoo.
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc gave us the following statement to share with our supporters:
We found the segment to be offensive and as a result, we are pulling our Snapple advertising from the station.
Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.
As far as we know, the beverage company now becomes the second business to pull its advertising from KRXQ as a result of last week’s defamatory and dehumanizing comments against transgender children made by radio hosts Rob and Arnie.
The popular restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill was the first to announce pulling their advertising contract from the station.
Please continue to check back for updates on this developing story.
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UPDATE:
At 4:00pm EST, GLAAD spoke with SONIC Corp, the largest chain of drive-in restaurants in the country. SONIC confirmed they pulled all of their advertising from KRXQ as a result of the offensive comments made on the “Rob, Arnie and Dawn in the Morning” show during their May 28 radio segment.
SONIC provided GLAAD with the following statement at 4:45pm EST:
Sonic wants to assure you that the views of this station are in no way related to the views of Sonic. Sonic was alerted to the May 28th segment only yesterday and immediately began researching the segment, show and Sonic’s planned advertising on the station. SONIC in no way condones violence toward children and does not wish to be associated with media content that condones or promotes such activity in any way. We have decided to immediately withdraw advertising from this station and have notified the station of our decision.
SONIC now joins Snapple and Chipotle in their removal of advertising on KRXQ.
Please check back with us for more developments on this story.
Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send us a tweet on our Twitter account @glaad.
Sent this email to the email addresses of ALL the stations advertisers:
pr@ckr.com, trcigar@aol.com, christine.wilcox@albertsonsllc.com, enewswire@fypower.org, info@fypower.org, Darryll.harrison@nissan-usa.com, john.britton@att.com, Debra.Lewis@VerizonWireless.com, walt.riker@us.mcd.com, heidi.barker@us.mcd.com, christi.woodworth@sonicdrivein.com, rmckenney@barkleyus.com, corpcsf@wellsfargo.com, info@LASIKworld.com, procity@procitymortgage.com
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing today to request that you pull your advertising from KRXQ radio station.
On May 28th two radio personalities Rob Williams and Arnie States launched into a half hour long tirade where they spoke repeated hate speech and defamation against transgendered men, women, and youth.
They spent over half an hour calling transgendered people “freaks” and “weirdos”. On that particular show they appeared to advocate for bashing, both verbally and physically, transgendered people.
This bashing was either an attempt to “knock some sense into them” or “let them know that it isn’t right to be that way”.
Since that first show the two men have gone back onto the air to address the issue after receiving 100s of mails and phone calls from people and organizations all over the world.
In the follow up, they made it abundantly clear that they did not advocate for abusing or hurting children for any reason. They were joking. It was a joke made in poor taste, but a joke none the less.
What they did not do, was make an apology for calling transgendered people, of all ages, names. Saying it was their right to do so.
People saying that it is ok to use hate speech is what continues to allow it to happen. People like this are what makes people all over the world think that it is ok to bash, whether verbally or physically, someone who is different.
And it is not!
I am requesting that you pull your advertising if Rob and Arnie do not make a sincere apology, or the station does not fire them.
I will be forced to discontinue use of your product and encourage everyone I know to not use your product if you do not send them this message.
Thank you for your time.
[...] Here is the earlier Stonewall Oregon blog post and here is the link to the call for action issued by GLAAD. [...]
I also wrote to Snapple and Chipotle to thank them.
Any way we can organize a national Chipotle day, say this Saturday the 6th, to show support?
Received a response from Sonic almost immediately,
they are pulling their advertising, copy of email here:
Dear Amanda:
Thank you for voicing your concern regarding radio station KRXQ and the show Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning. Sonic wants to assure you that the views of this station are in no way related to the views of Sonic.
Sonic was alerted to the May 28th segment only yesterday and immediately began researching the segment, show and Sonic’s planned advertising on the station. SONIC in no way condones violence toward children and does not wish to be associated with media content that condones or promotes such activity in any way. We have decided to immediately withdraw advertising from this station and have notified the station of our decision.
We appreciate you alerting us to this issue and hope to see you at a Sonic drive-in soon. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me directly.
Christi Woodworth, APR * Director of External Communications * Sonic, America’s Drive-In * 300 Johnny Bench Drive * Oklahoma City, OK 73104 * Direct: 405.225.5602 * Mobile: 405.627.1260 * Fax: 405.225.5955
[...] of the radio station’s advertisers, asking them to ask the radio station to make restitution. Snapple and Chipotle have already pulled their ads; a list of advertisers is available [...]
This is exactly how you fight a battle like this. So glad to see this coming out like this.
[...] Chipotle was first, followed by Snapple and Sonic. [...]
Is there a list of their other advertisers that we can write to please? I would like to voice my opinion to them as well. I’m sorry if there was a list posted somewhere and I missed it.
Please note that I got a response from Albertson’s LLC which said the following, so you may wish to remove christine.wilcox@albertsonsllc.com from the sponsors email list.
Thank you for reaching out to Albertsons regarding the issue with KRXQ.
Albertsons stores throughout the United States are owned and operated by two separate companies – Albertson’s LLC and SUPERVALU. Albertsons LLC, which previously owned and operated the Albertsons stores in Northern California, exited the market area in 2007, when our stores there were purchased by Save Mart. At that time, Albertsons ceased advertising with and sponsoring radio shows with stations located there, and we have no ongoing agreement with KRXQ for sponsoring any programs.
SUPERVALU operates the remaining Albertsons stores located in Southern California, but has never sponsored shows or purchased advertising from KRXQ.
We understand your concerns, and we are taking this matter very seriously. We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention.
Sincerely,
Christine Wilcox
[...] May 28 broadcast defaming and advocating abuse of transgendered children has gotten results. Chipotle Grill, Snapple and Sonic Drive-In have all pulled their ads from the station in response to the [...]
[...] Bank of America is now the fourth company to pull their advertising after Sonic, Snapple and Chipotle. You can read more about that here. [...]
Bank of America responds:
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In response to your inquiry, I would like to express our thoughts to you regarding Bank of America’s decision to discontinue advertising on the station and show in question.
Bank of America is proud to be a leader in supporting diversity and continues to be widely recognized for our progressive workplace practices and initiatives to promote inclusion. This commitment to equality and diversity informs every aspect of our enterprise, including our approach to advertising. As a result, we adhere to a set of media buying guidelines for syndicated programming and for local stations that promote inclusion and help our company reach a broad range of diverse customers.
Bank of America prides itself on fostering a corporate culture that is inclusive of all the communities we serve. Our customers, clients and associates speak different languages; support different family structures and life situations; and have unique and personal financial requirements. In order to meet the diverse needs of our customers, we require a variety of products and services, marketing and a diverse workforce that demonstrate and reflect our awareness and appreciation of who our clients and customers are.
We hope the immediate actions that we have taken demonstrate our longstanding support of diversity, and we hope you inform members of your organization of the steps that we have taken to address your concerns.
Thank you for your inquiry and bringing this to our attention.
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[...] Chipotle announced it had pulled its advertising contract, and Snapple and Sonic followed suit. You can read more about that here. [...]
[...] pertenecen al ámbito de los EEUU, no haremos relación de estas marcas, pero podéis informaros aquí de cuáles son) han denunciado apoyar su ‘llamada a la acción’, retirando su publicidad de la [...]