Rush To The Exit: More Sponsors Drop Limbaugh

by Erik Sass , March 5, 2012

Rush-Limbaugh

More advertising sponsors are withdrawing from Rush Limbaugh’s national syndicated talk radio program after the conservative pundit called a Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, who testified in front of Congress about contraception, a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

On Monday AOL joined ProFlowers, which announced its intention to pull ads from Limbaugh’s program over the weekend.

AOL and ProFlowers pulled their advertising after Limbaugh apologized on the air on Saturday for his remarks, which he said resulted from a poor choice of words.

Several other advertisers also pulled their ads despite his apology, including Carbonite. A number of advertisers had already pulled their ads before Limbaugh apologized, including Citrix Systems Inc., Quicken Loans, LegalZoom, Sleep Number and Sleep Train.

The advertisers came under pressure from women’s advocacy groups, including UltraViolet, which claimed to have collected 91,000 signatures on a petition asking ProFlowers to pull its ads. Several Republican presidential hopefuls expressed disapproval of Limbaugh’s remarks, either in person or through a spokesperson. President Obama phoned Fluke to express his support.

The controversy is reminiscent of the contretemps caused by ill-considered remarks about women (which were also racially charged) by another conservative radio host, Don Imus, back in 2007. Imus was fired by CBS for referring to members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”

After settling a lawsuit accusing CBS of breach of contract, Imus was sued by one of the Rutgers players for defamation, although this lawsuit was later dropped. He joined Citadel Broadcasting's WABC in December 2007.

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7 comments about "Rush To The Exit: More Sponsors Drop Limbaugh".

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T Y from Freelance Producer / DP, March 6, 2012 at 8:03 a.m.
Rush also said that the student should make videos of her sex and post them online for the world to see just because she uses birth control. This isn't a conservative/liberal issue. It's an issue of an influential radio talker calling private citizens a variety of names and then blaming liberals for his stupid comments. Every one of Rush's "apologies" tries to deflect the issue from what spews from his mouth to his hysterically paranoid theories of plots by the student or liberals in general. There may be "women’s advocacy groups" involved in collecting petitioners by more likely the outrage comes from anyone who knows a woman and expects them to be treated with simple human deceny.
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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, March 6, 2012 at 9:47 a.m.

But he apologized. That was also enough for David Letterman who joked that then-14-year-old Willow Palin was an easy sexual target. Media figures say stupid stuff and if they have a big enough fanbase, they are deemed too big to fail. The people most offended by Rush are the ones who already hated him, so what's new?

Bob Rosen from KQ&R, March 6, 2012 at 9:52 a.m.

Someone please tell me how a Fortune 100 company doesn't know what radio shows their ads are placed on. As an Allstate customer I contacted the company about reports they advertise on Rush. Here's the response I got, which has the distinct smell of half-truth (although at least they claim to be pulling ads going forward):

‪"Allstate’s advertising purchase strategy has not included the Rush Limbaugh Show. Earlier today, we responded to inquiries about our advertising relationship with the show by stating we did not advertise on or sponsor it. As radio listeners notified us that they were hearing Allstate ads during the show this afternoon, we contacted the vendor that arranges for our advertising placements and discovered that an error had been made and advertising time had mistakenly been purchased for the show. ‬

‪We regret providing mistaken information about this situation. We have asked our media buying firm to correct the error by discontinuing any advertising on the Rush Limbaugh Show moving forward in keeping with our original advertising plans and strategies.‬‬"

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, March 6, 2012 at 10:09 a.m.

This is not about an insult to a public figure. This is not about an insult at all. There was no change in preaching attitudes in violence to women. He shows he thinks he is invincible; he can take it over the edge - it's all about the money, no empathy, no sympathy. How psycho can he go and the lemmings still follow ?

Mark Walker from aka Media Mark, March 6, 2012 at 10:35 a.m.

THAT was an apology? Sounded more like Flip Wilson saying, "The Devil Made Me Do It" than taking PERSONAL responsibility and actually admitting wrong. Then he proceeded Monday to continue to berate the woman, and blame more things on "The Left". How long will listeners continue to believe this buffoon?

Suzanne Sanders from S2 Advertising, March 6, 2012 at 11:36 a.m.

Trojan condoms should be sponsoring Rush and have condoms with Elephant logos at in every Republican goody bag on the 2012 campaign trail! It would be a brilliant campaign! As far as Rush Limbaugh's apology that apology wasn't to Sandra Fluke that apology was to his sponsors. Funny that Bain Capital has ties to Clear Channel too!

Todd Brewster from Media Buying Decisions, March 15, 2012 at 10:42 p.m.

The irony is that I was friends with Don Imus back in the 70's. He has a lot of wit and made a rare, but very inappropriate comment about the Rutger's women's basketball team. Howard Stern has made hundreds of worse comments about women throughout the years and I hardly hear a peep. I am curious, why is that?