{"id":71655,"date":"2017-02-21T00:23:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T07:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-southwest-colorado-companies-block-ads-from-breitbart-news\/"},"modified":"2017-02-21T07:23:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T07:23:53","slug":"two-southwest-colorado-companies-block-ads-from-breitbart-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-southwest-colorado-companies-block-ads-from-breitbart-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Southwest Colorado companies block ads from Breitbart News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Puragtory
Puragtory Resort and Osprey Packs have joined more than 1,130 businesses that have chosen to remove their ads from Breitbart News, which has been accused of publishing hateful content.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two Southwest Colorado-based companies are joining an increasing legion of businesses choosing to remove their ads from the controversial website Breitbart News.<\/p>\n

In November, a Twitter account called Sleeping Giants began alerting companies that their advertising was appearing on Breitbart News, which has been accused of publishing racist, misogynistic, homophobic and xenophobic content.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to stop racist websites by stopping their ad dollars,\u201d the Sleeping Giants profile says. \u201cMany companies don\u2019t even know it\u2019s happening. It\u2019s time to tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within months, more than 1,130 companies fled the publication formerly headed by President Donald Trump\u2019s chief strategist Steve Bannon.<\/p>\n

On that swelling list are Purgatory Resort and Osprey Packs. A number of other nationwide businesses with locations in the region also are getting off Breitbart News.<\/p>\n

According to Sleeping Giant\u2019s Twitter account, which has more than 58,300 followers, consumers are asked to go to Breitbart News, take a screenshot of an ad next to the network\u2019s content, then Tweet to the company to notify them about their ad placements.<\/p>\n

Most companies are unaware their ads are on the site, Sleeping Giants says, because advertising often is purchased in what\u2019s known as a \u201cmedia buy,\u201d in which an automated system spreads ads across the internet. According to eMarketer, U.S. companies spend $22 billion a year on this service.<\/p>\n

Such was the case with Purgatory Resort, about 30 miles north of Durango, which purchases digital advertising through an agency that targets skiers and other demographics, said spokeswoman Kim Oyler.<\/p>\n

\u201cPurgatory does not condone or encourage violence, racism, or any other kind of discrimination,\u201d Oyler said. \u201cPurgatory as a business is interested in creating positive experiences at our resort for our customers. \u2026 We did indeed remove Breitbart from our media buy recently, and we do not plan to advertise with them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Osprey Packs, based in Cortez, the situation is more complicated, said spokeswoman Kami York-Feirn. The outdoor retailer purchases its ad buys from Amazon, the main target of Sleeping Giants in recent weeks. Amazon has not removed Breitbart News from its marketing package.<\/p>\n

Osprey\u2019s marketing arm in Seattle continues to work with Amazon to have its ads not appear on Breitbart News, which came to the company\u2019s attention in early February, York-Feirn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all agree Breitbart News does not fit our company outlook,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want a political stance right now, but seeing our ads show up there doesn\u2019t fit our message. So, we\u2019re asking to take it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breitbart News could not be reached for comment Monday. Breitbart has maintained its site condemns racism and bigotry, and told Bloomberg in November the network \u201ccontinues to experience exceptional growth,\u201d at a time when Sleeping Giant\u2019s campaign was less than a month old.<\/p>\n

Now that the list has exponentially grown, it\u2019s unclear if Breitbart News has been financially impacted. The network has claimed it has 45 million monthly conservative readers.<\/p>\n

Just a day after Kellogg announced it would remove ads from the publication on Nov. 29, 2016, Breitbart called for a boycott of its products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you serve Kellogg\u2019s products to your family, you are serving up bigotry at your breakfast table,\u201d Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow wrote at the time. \u201cWe are fearless advocates for traditional American values, perhaps most important among them is freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Past Breitbart News headlines many critics regard as controversial or offensive include:<\/p>\n

\u201cBirth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.\u201d<\/em>\u201cGay rights have made us dumber, it\u2019s time to get back in the closet.\u201d<\/em>\u201cDATA: Young Muslims in the West are a ticking time bomb.\u201d<\/em>\u201cScience proves it: Fat shaming works.\u201d<\/em>The Sleeping Giants founder, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told The New York Times last month: \u201cWe\u2019re focused on Breitbart News right now because they\u2019re the biggest fish. It\u2019s scary to say it, but maybe companies will have to be the standard-bearers for morals right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asking advertisers and consumers to abstain from companies that don\u2019t align with their worldview is not a new tactic, evidenced by past efforts from conservative groups such as Christian Leaders for Responsible Television and the American Family Association.<\/p>\n

Yet Sleeping Giant\u2019s campaign highlights increasing divisiveness under the Trump administration as some U.S. consumers push businesses \u2013 which generally stay out of national issues because of the risk of alienating segments of the population \u2013 to take a political stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see now is a heightened awareness of the divide of things in the country, and you see that people want to make sure that brands are related to their values,\u201d Eric Weisberg, who works at the advertising agency Doner, told The New York Times in January.<\/p>\n

According to a study by Global Strategy Group, 56 percent of Americans surveyed say corporations should take a stance on political or cultural issues, 80 percent want them to take action, and another 89 percent believe companies can influence social change.<\/p>\n

And since Trump \u2013 who has also threatened boycotts and criticized companies, such as when Nordstrom Rack announced it would no longer sell his daughter\u2019s products because of declining sales \u2013 took office, this new form of digital, consumer activism is becoming a new normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the old normal, it would have cost little to stand up against neo-Nazi slogans,\u201d New York Times opinion writer Pagan Kennedy wrote in January. \u201cThis struggle is about much more than ads on Breitbart News \u2013 it\u2019s about using corporations as shields to protect vulnerable people from bullying and hate crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other companies that have blocked unintentional advertising on Breitbart News include Allstate, Bed Bath and Beyond, BMW, BP, Gore-Tex, H&R Block, Hulu, Nestle, Patagonia, Petsmart, REI, Rolling Stone, Twitter, U.S. Bank and Visa.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1,130 companies remove ads from controversial website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4128,21,13,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-advertising","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71655"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}