Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is rapidly losing advertisers amid a controversy over his recent comments on his show regarding immigrants.
On “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last week, the host suggested that immigrants are making the United States “dirtier.”
“We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided,” he said, before criticizing immigrants with his take on the Emma Lazarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. “Huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Nope, cynical shakedown artists who have been watching too much CNN.”
Carlson only doubled down on that rhetoric on his show on Monday night.
“The left says we have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor. Even if it makes our own country more like Tijuana is now, which is to say poorer and dirtier and more divided,” he said.
“That’s what we said. It’s true... But precisely because it is so obviously true, saying it out loud is a threat.”
Carlson’s remarks have been met with widespread backlash, with brands including IHOP, Bowflex and Ancestry.com announcing they will no longer advertise on his show.
A spokesperson for Fox News characterized the controversy as “unnecessary distractions” in a statement to HuffPost Monday.
“It is a shame that left wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed ‘media watchdogs’ weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to stand by and work with our advertisers through these unfortunate and unnecessary distractions.”
Fox News sent out another statement on Tuesday, telling HuffPost via email that it “cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants.”
“Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home. He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far left activist groups with deeply political motives,” the statement read. “While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view.”
As of Tuesday evening, at least 20 advertisers have announced that they’ve broken ties with or are in the process of breaking ties with Carlson, or have indicated they currently have no plans to advertise on his show.
Below is a list of those advertisers, which we’ll continue to update as necessary. Meanwhile, numerous advertisers have announced that they will stick with Carlson’s show.
1) Pacific Life
Life insurer Pacific Life tweeted on Friday that it strongly disagrees with Carlson’s comments and would stop advertising on his show “as we re-evaluate our relationship with his program.”
2) Bowflex
On Monday a spokesperson for Bowflex said in a statement to HuffPost: “We can confirm that Nautilus, Inc., parent company for Bowflex, has pulled its ads from the Tucker Carlson Tonight show. We buy media broadly across many news networks, and do not target ads based on specific programs or hosts. However, we have requested that Fox News remove our ads from airing in conjunction with Tucker Carlson Tonight in the future. Aside from our decision to remove our ads from his show, we have no other association or affiliation with Mr. Carlson.”
3) Indeed
The self-proclaimed world’s top job site told HuffPost on Monday that it stopped advertising on Carlson’s show “over a month” ago and has “no plans to advertise on this program in the future.”
“As a company, we are nonpartisan ― our site is for everyone, regardless of background or beliefs,” Indeed said in a statement. “Indeed has not advertised on the Tucker Carlson Tonight program in over a month, and has no plans to do so in the future.”
4) Minted
Online design marketplace Minted tweeted a statement on Monday night, saying that it does not agree with Carlson’s comments, as they are “not consistent with the values we hold.” The company also said it has “permanently discontinued advertising on this particular program.”
5) NerdWallet
NerdWallet said in a statement to NBC News that it “pulled its advertising and will be reevaluating any ongoing advertising on this program.”
6) SmileDirectClub
A spokesperson for SmileDirectClub told HuffPost that it is “actively working with our media buyers to confirm that SmileDirectClub is no longer running our ads around any political opinion shows.”
7) Voya Financial
The retirement company, which has been a major sponsor of Carlson’s show, tweeted on Tuesday that it has “no scheduled spots on Tucker Carlson” and is “committed to diversity, inclusion and equality — and respect for all individuals.”
8) Ancestry.com
A spokesperson for the genealogy website, which advertised twice on Carlson’s Friday night show, told HuffPost, “We stopped all advertising as of yesterday morning.”
9) Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover North America told HuffPost in a statement, “We have rarely appeared on The Tucker Carlson Tonight program, and do not have any future ad time allocated to it.”
10) Zenni Optical
On Tuesday a spokesperson for Zenni Optical told HuffPost in an emailed statement, “We have pulled our ads from the Tucker Carlson Tonight program effective yesterday.” The spokesperson said the company believes “the last one ran yesterday evening and that will be the last.”
“We did not have a direct advertising relationship with the program,” the spokesperson said. “Our ad content is disseminated throughout cable networks as we buy a broad rotation of DR media and don’t always know what programming our commercials will air on.”
11) IHOP
Brand spokeswoman Stephanie Peterson told HuffPost Tuesday that the business stands for “welcoming folks from all backgrounds and beliefs into our restaurants and continually evaluate ad placements to ensure they align with our values. In this case, we will no longer be advertising on this show.”
12) Just for Men
In a statement to HuffPost, the personal-products brand said, “Just For Men has no further plans to advertise on Tucker Carlson’s show. The brand is always considering ways to remain responsible, and this includes aligning with partners who share our brand values.”
13) United Explorer credit card
A spokesperson for the United Explorer credit card told The Hollywood Reporter that it has “stopped advertising on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show.” It advertised twice last week on the program.
14) ScotteVest
ScotteVest President Marshall Rule told HuffPost in a statement that “as a small, privately owned company, we buy our ads on a remnant basis and do not have the ability to choose the programs on which we advertise.” He added, “That being said, we believe that a cornerstone of our democracy is the right to free speech, which sometimes means tolerating opinions that one may disagree with and find distasteful.” He also said that while there “may be a few ads that run in the next week that were not able to be pulled,” beyond that, the company has “no plans to advertise” on Carlson’s show.
15) TD Ameritrade
A spokesperson for TD Ameritrade told HuffPost, “We support a very diverse client base, and we make every effort to advertise on a variety of networks and programs.”
“Our intent is to remain politically neutral. It’s possible we may have had a small number of ads run on the program tied to a broader media buy with Fox News. Once news broke about this issue, we instructed our media buying team to avoid the show in the future,” the spokesperson continued. “This is a decision that we believe is in-line with the strong values of our organization — one of which is People Matter.”
16) CareerBuilder
A CareerBuilder spokesperson told HuffPost that as of last Friday they “permanently suspended advertising on some Fox programming, including Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“Our purpose at CareerBuilder is to help people build a life that works. Not some people. All people. People looking for jobs. And people looking to hire people who are looking for jobs,” read the statement.
“We will continue to advertise on programs that align with who we are and what we value.”
17) SodaStream
A spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that “SodaStream has asked Fox to remove us from this time slot. Since this is part of a national cable media buy, some of our ads air on Fox News. However, airing times have shifted in some markets based on inventory, and those airings should not be considered an endorsement of any kind.”
18) Robitussin
A Pfizer spokesperson told THR on Wednesday that the company “is no longer advertising on the program.”
19) Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
A Takeda Pharmaceutical Company spokesperson told THR on Wednesday that the company has “pulled our advertising off of Tucker’s show.”
20) Red Lobster
The brand confirmed for Business Insider in January that it was no longer advertising during “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
21) Norwegian Cruise Line
After the company ran an ad on an early January episode of the show, a spokesperson told a THR reporter, “Our ads will no longer appear during that program.”
This story has been updated.