Rush Limbaugh: If ad boycott expands, can he survive?
[Editor's note: This story has been updated as more companies have pulled their ads.]
The outcry over right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh鈥檚 rude comments on a law student鈥檚 sex life has cost him at least 19 advertisers. Some have dropped their specific ad buys on the show, at least five others have suspended their ads, even after he apologized twice. Other companies, whose media buys happened to place their ads during Mr. Limbaugh's show, have publicly stated that they are ensuring that they don't appear there again.
How much more erosion of his advertising base can he afford?
Probably a lot more, if he can hold onto his audience and survive the immediate reaction from shareholders of聽Clear Channel, which produces the show.
"As long as the Limbaugh show maintains its ratings聽and notoriety, there will be advertisers eager to utilize it," writes聽Michael Harrison, publisher of industry trade magazine, Talkers, in an e-mail. 鈥淚 would imagine Clear Channel is already picking up new sponsors to聽replace the ones that have publicly defected and I wouldn't be聽surprised if some of those that have cancelled come back after the聽dust has settled....聽The American advertising industry is not necessarily known聽for its taste or dignity.鈥澛�
Departing sponsors include LegalZoom, ProFlowers, Citrix, Quicken Loans, Sensa, Sleep Number beds, and Carbonite. Others, including AOL and Tax Resolution Services, have 鈥渟uspended鈥� their advertising on the show. Sears, AutoZone and Allstate have all said they do not聽sponsor Limbaugh鈥檚 show and advertisements for the companies聽that appeared on the program were placed there by mistake.聽
Limbaugh got the controversy started last Wednesday when he impugned Georgetown University鈥檚 Sandra Fluke on the air, calling her a 鈥渟lut鈥� and a 鈥減rostitute鈥� after she appeared before a congressional committee arguing that her school鈥檚 health coverage should include birth control. Limbaugh later in the week insisted that the public should have access to video of her sexual encounters in exchange for the alleged funding of her birth control.
The comments struck many as extraordinarily crass, even for Limbaugh, who frequently makes derisive ad hominem attacks against those he disagrees with. A聽聽quickly took root, spreading across online communities on sites like Reddit and Facebook, and the strong reaction against Limbaugh inspired seven sponsors to pull ads.
Carbonite CEO David Friend wrote聽:聽"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Ms. Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show."
Limbaugh himself apologized in a statement Saturday and again on his show, Monday, saying that聽he wanted to 鈥渟incerely apologize鈥� to Fluke for 鈥渦sing those two words to describe her.鈥澛�
聽But he also struck back at critics, saying that he would replace those advertisers with others.
The big question is how Clear Channel reacts to the controversy. Unlike Limbaugh, the San Antonio-based company聽has quarterly revenue targets to meet and has to be concerned about the immediate reaction of shareholders. Clear Channel operates 866 stations in 150 markets聽in the United States. Its Premiere Networks handles 90 syndicated programs,聽which it distributes to approximately 5,800 affiliate stations.聽
So far, Clear Channel has not commented on the controversy.聽聽
"The聽question and focus should be on how many listeners Rush might lose聽because of this," Mr.聽Harrison says. "Ironically, his ratings will probably increase due聽to all this attention. If that happens his sponsorships will actually聽increase."聽
