Companies Being Shamed To Pull Ads From Breitbart

Screenshot of Breitbart webpage 

Companies from Lyft to T-Mobile are pulling ads from Breitbart News, the controversial Website formerly run by Stephen Bannon, joining the list of retailers, consumer brands and even governments following suit, according to MediaPost.

"One of Lyft's core values is to uplift and support one another in all that we do," Lyft's director of communications Adrian Durbin told CNET. "We strive to ensure that our advertisements appear only on sites that share this value."

According to a report from CNET, a secretive organization called Sleeping Giants is on a mission to shame companies and organizations advertising on Breitbart News.

Bannon, now a top White House adviser, has described Breitbart as a “platform for the alt-right,” a term commonly associated with racism, fascism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy.

“We are trying to stop racist Web sites by stopping their ad dollars. Many companies don't even know it's happening. It's time to tell them,” Sleeping Giants tweeted in November.

Sleeping Giants claims about 820 companies have blacklisted Breitbart, including big consumer brands like Kellogg’s, BMW and Visa, as well as retailer Warby Parker and insurance company Allstate. The list, available on a public Google Doc, continues to be updated.

In addition, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Autodesk will no longer advertise on Breitbart.  Other tech giants, like Uber, Amazon and AT&T, continue to display ads on the site.

THE SG UPDATED CONFIRMED LIST: https://t.co/4TYRUOj9sv
THE SG FAQ: https://t.co/wfSUQBjOgj
REMOVE ADS YOURSELF: https://t.co/V4V8qWyyv3 pic.twitter.com/JszlNFryKY

— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) December 16, 2016

Ads generally appear on Web sites through programmatic advertising, an automated process that often leaves marketers unaware of where ads are appearing. Ads are placed based on algorithms that target specific audiences.

Breitbart editor Alexander Marlow told The Wall Street Journal there has been “little to no impact” on the site’s advertising revenue as a result of the blacklisting. Marlow claims traffic to the site is currently at an all-time high.