Two Advertisers Suspend ‘Full Frontal’ Sponsorship In Wake Of Ivanka Slur
Two of Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal advertisers have said they are suspending sponsorship in wake f the controversy after she called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c**t” for which she and TBS have apologized.
“The comments expressed by Samantha Bee were offensive and unacceptable and do not reflect the views of our company,” Autotrader said this afternoon, adding, “As a result, we have suspended our sponsorship of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.”
State Farm insurance became company No. 2, saying it too has suspended advertising on the show. “As part of our overall advertising with TBS, our ad did appear last night,” the company said in a statement. “We have asked TBS to suspend our advertising in the program and are reviewing any future placements. We constantly review programs to ensure alignment to our programming guidelines and brand values.”
Samantha Bee apologized for her comment, made during a segment about the 1,500 children lost by federal agents as part of immigration policy.
I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.
— Samantha Bee (@iamsambee) May 31, 2018
TBS joined the chorus with its own mea culpa:
“Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” TBS said in a statement. “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”
The apologies came not long after the White House issued a statement blasting Bee and TBS over Wednesday night’s edition.
“The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious. The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, inaccurately, in the White House statement.
By the time Sanders’ statement was issued, CNN, the cable news network Donald Trump loves to hate, had done several segments blasting Bee’s remark. And NBC News’s Today host Megyn Kelly had called hypocrites any media outlet that “gleefully” posted Bee’s video the morning after savaging Barr for her racist tweet.
Sanders’ statement continued: “[Bee’s] disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”
In the morning news cycle’s outrage, some cast Bee’s remark as worse than Barr’s, which was made in a late-night tweet. Bee’s remark was scripted and the segment had been taped in advance, which meant many people working on the program had time to reconsider it. Typically the episode would have been seen by someone at the network before it aired as well.
Here is the Autotrader statement:
Thank you to those who reached out regarding our sponsorship of Full Frontal. The comments expressed by Samantha Bee were offensive and unacceptable and do not reflect the views of our company. As a result, we have suspended our sponsorship of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.
— Autotrader (@AutoTrader_com) May 31, 2018
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