Steve Bannon, has drawn scrutiny to Breitbart News because of Donald Trump, causing brands to pull advertising over the stie’s racist and misogynistic content. (Photo Collage: MPG)
The maker of such well-known cereals as Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies cited Breitbart’s promotion of racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic content as the reason for the move.
The world’s largest cereal company is the biggest corporation yet to instruct blacklist the site over its content. Allstate and Warby Parker have made similar moves, according to Bloomberg.
Among third-party marketers, AppNexus Inc., one of the largest, blacklisted Breitbart earlier this month for violating its hate-speech rules.
Many advertisers said they were unaware their ads were appearing on the site because they’re distributed through third parties.
Under Bannon’s leadership, the news aggregation and content publisher has become a major outlet for hard-right propaganda and the promotion of a racist, white supremacist viewpoints.
Among recent stories were these gems: “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew” and “Here’s Why There Ought to Be a Cap on Women Studying Science and Maths.”
Bannon’s role on Trump’s campaign and now in the White House has drawn attention to the site.
While the move is unlikely to put a significant dent in Breitbart’s revenue, it should take the heat off Kellogg.
Kellogg was under attack on social media over the appearance of its ads on the site. A Twitter account titled “Sleeping Giants” has been calling attention to its ads running adjacent to hate stories.
The site definitely isn’t “aligned with our values as a company,” company spokesperson Kris Charles told the financial news site. Charles explained:
“We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that aren’t aligned with our values as a company. We recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are working to remove our ads from that site.”