As one who spent 25 years in the media planning and placement business, I understand that advertisers don't really buy specific programs for the most part. They package ad buys across several dayparts and even across sibling networks. They don't buy spots; they buy aggregated rating points.
But they can pull out of a show. And another one is out of Glenn Beck.
Over the past ten years or so, I worked at two different ad agencies
that handled Sargento Foods. They impressed me as a well-run company
guided by smart people. They make an excellent product that competes
with marketing behemoths like Kraft General Foods, and they are based
here in Wisconsin.
Their good name benefits not at all from being a sponsor of Beck's crazy talk. I politely wrote to them asking why they would even want to be associated with him. I didn't ask them not to be a Beck sponsor, but approached the issue from the "this guy's a pox on your brand" angle.
Initially, I received one of those "yeah, thanks, we'll share that with marketing" responses. But a day later, I received this:
We deeply appreciate your reaching out to us and sharing your comments and concerns about Sargento ads appearing during "The Glenn Beck Show." We sat down with the marketing department to talk about it and I learned that we buy time periods not specific programs. But in any event, they’ve made the decision to exclude that program from our future ad rotation. Simply stated, Sargento ads won’t be airing during that show. Again, thanks for contacting us.
The email included a personal salutation, as well as a specific name of a customer relations director. That may seem insignificant, but it is not. They were taking the time to personally reconnect. To me, it's a sign of taking this issue seriously.
In the end, FOX likely will still keep whatever money Sargento Foods
is spending, with or without spots on Glenn Beck. But companies like
Sargento, and as diaried here as well... State Farm,
are listening. And they recognize that it does their brands no good to
be associated with the broadcast equivalent of terrorism.
I'm proud of Wisconsin-based Sargento, as well as another former client of mine, State Farm. I'm happy that I can continue to feel good about being a customer of theirs.
cross-posted at Daily Kos.
Honestly, it's the first thing I thought of. Unfortunately, Billo the Clown was taking the day off. Maybe he's in seclusion. Maybe he's out getting drunk. Maybe he was realizing that he doesn't shape the world after all.
I like Bill in Portland Maine's take from DK this morning...
Hi, Bill. It's me...Bill.
I've been waiting for this day so that I could say something special to you.
You see, Bill, I remember exactly where I was when I heard you declare on your radio show, shortly after Election Day 2008, that "that guttersnipe" Al Franken would "never" set foot inside the United States Senate.
It wasn't a toss-away line. You were emphatic. You called Al Franken a guttersnipe and swore he'd never become a United States Senator. Do you remember that, Bill? I do. I was in the car with my partner driving down Falmouth Street in Portland. As we turned the corner onto Oakdale Street, you made your bitter, non-negotiable declaration. I seared that moment into my brain, Bill. And here we are, at the intersection of Psychic Friends Network Avenue and Reality Boulevard.
This morning I want to tell you something, Bill O'Reilly. Come closer... Closer... Cloooooser...
Okay, man, that's close enough.
Now, with my lips a quarter-inch from your---whoo---abnormally-waxy ear canal, I can finally whisper the words I've waited nearly eight months to say:
"Game over, Bill. You lose. And not just another battle with Al. This time you lost the war."
I couldn't have said it better myself. Now excuse me while I laugh my ass off before I get back to that thesis thing.
