The Waitrose grocery store chain, which has roughly 200 stores across the United Kingdom, has announced that it will suspend advertising anywhere on the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable network after customers complained about their brand's placement during a segment of The Glenn Beck Show. According to a British newspaper, a shopper whoemailed management expressing outrage that they were "associated with this particular form of rightwing cant" received a humbled reply.
"We take the placement of our ads in individual programmes very seriously, ensuring the content of these programmes is deemed appropriate for a brand with our values," a customer service spokesman is said to have written in reply. "Since being notified of our presence within the Glenn Beck programme, we have withdrawn all Waitrose advertising from the Fox News channel with immediate effect and for all future TV advertising campaigns."
A spokesman for the supermarket wouldn't comment on how many complaints the store had received, saying only, "We believe it was the right thing to do" and "we take the views of our customers seriously."
Waitrose was the first grocery store chain in England to be awarded a Royal Warrant by the Queen in 2002. The marks are awarded to firms that have supplied the royal family for at least five years, and are used in marketing.
Nearly two dozen companies have abandoned Beck's program after comments he made in July when he accused President Barack Obama of being a racist.
Beck said Obama held a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" after the president said a police officer had "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.
"I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people," Beck remarked. "I'm saying that he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."
Among those who quit Beck's show included big-box juggernaut Wal-Mart and consumer products behemoth Procter & Gamble, as well as Travelocity and Best Buy.
Waitrose's announcement, however, doesn't mean the chain won't simply stop advertising on Beck's show; it means they won't be advertising on Fox News Channel entirely. Waitrose advertises on the channel carried by Sky in the United Kingdom, the Guardian says.
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