Already a member?
Sign in
Welcome! Wikis are websites that everyone can build together. It's easy!
The Power of the Advertiser
by Lauren Gregory, posted October 30, 2007.
"Advertisers, not governments, are the primary censors of media content in the United States today." - C. Edwin Baker, Advertising and a Democratic Press, 1994.
In the 1988 analysis of press censorship in America, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, a five filter model is used to show how an event becomes newsworthy. In their second filter, titled “The Advertising License to do Business,” they describe how without the support from advertisers a channel of media would find it hard to stay economically practical (14). Chomsky and Herman explain that “the power of advertisers...stems from the simple fact that they buy and pay for the programs” (16).
In 1841, Volney B. Palmer created the first American advertising agency in the U.S. and the effects forever changed the media. Newspapers began competing for ads in order to lower costs and increase profits. Advertisers held power to choose where they would advertise and in consequence media outlets began to accommodate them by filtering their reports.
However, if requests from advertisers were not met they usually withdrew their money and ads. Case in point, in 1985 WNET, a public-television station, lost the support from advertiser Gulf + Western after a documentary “Hungry for Profit” aired. The program conflicted with the corporation’s view and the chief executive complained to WNET that the program was “virulently anti-business if not anti-American,” and they did not want to be associated with this type of behavior (Chomsky and Herman 17).
Similarly, in 1990, car dealer advertisers withdrew from the Hartford Courant after an article was published that encouraged buyers to be cautious of shady dealers (Campbell, Martin, and Fabos 414).
Today the trend continues and on April 4, 2007 during MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus commented that the Rutgers University women's basketball team was a team of “nappy-headed hos.” The remark referred to eight African Americans and two white players and led to the firing of Imus and affiliated networks were taken down the frequently travelled path of how advertisers can influence the media.
Imus is known for his loaded racial and sexual comments and has a history of such slurs being expressed on his show. In 1992 Imus referred to New York Times sports reporter Bill Rhoden as a "quota hire" because of his ethnicity. In 1998, Imus called Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz a "boner-nosed... beanie-wearing Jewboy."
At first Imus described his remarks about the Rutgers team as "some idiot comment meant to be amusing." On April 6, whether pressures from rumors of being fired or because of public restraint and boycotts, Imus went further than other instances where he had offended the public and apologized stating that the comment was an "insensitive and ill-conceived remark."
On April 9, the same day that Imus appeared on Al Sharpton's radio show to again apologize and further explain that his show's "agenda is to be funny and sometimes [they] go too far," MSNBC and CBS Radio suspended Imus in the Morning for two weeks starting April 16.
On April 11, Steve Capus, President of NBC News explained that after an “ongoing review process” a further decision was made to cancel Imus in the Morning because of the fear of acquiring a poor reputation. The next day, April 12, CBS Radio followed and also canceled Imus' show stating similar concerns for their decision.
Since the decisions came at a time when Imus’ program on NBC was doing better than it ever had been and for CBS the show was producing $15 million in annual revenue, one must question what pushed the networks to further their repercussions on Imus.
“What ultimately caused the show from being pulled off the air was not the social and political controversy surrounding his comments but the fact that all his major advertisers pulled their spending from the program,” said Andrew Hampp, reporter for Advertising Age, in an email interview.
As a result of Imus' comments some of his biggest advertisers, including General Motors, Sprint Nextel, PetMed Express, American Express, Procter & Gamble, and Staples pulled their ads from the show because, as Chomsky and Herman write, advertisers “will rarely sponsor programs that engage in serious criticisms" (17).
In a statement concerning Imus' comment, P&G said that "any venue in which our ads appear that is offensive to our target audience is not acceptable to us." In similar fashion, Sprint Nextel said in a statement "we do not want our advertising associated with content which we, our customers and the public find offensive.”
When asked about the advertisers effect on firing of Imus, Katie Strickland, political columnist at the Daily Bruin, said in an email interview, “the importance of advertising revenue for broadcast media, I must say that it is too important.” Strickland believes that the media is “a profit-centered entity but it also is a journalistic entity and therefore has an ethical duty to serve their viewers.” The firing of Imus “raises the very serious concern that advertisers have the power of back-door censorship."
Imus is scheduled to return on air on WABC in the beginning of next year. When asked how advertisers and ratings will play a role in Imus’ new show, Hampp questions whether past advertisers like “Procter & Gamble or General Motors will once again spend money on a show hosted by him.” He furthered in saying, “some radio media buyers say there's still a risk attached to associating a brand with Don Imus again, while others have been able to gain ad support following the controversial remarks.”
Charles Warner, the author of Media Selling: Broadcast, Cable, Print, and Interactive and a former media executive with AOL, NBC, and CBS, responded to the question of power for Imus' new advertisers by explaining that, "WABC would not have hired Imus if it was not confident that he would attract a lot of advertising" because “advertising revenue is virtually the only source of revenue for the broadcast media." Imus, like other controversial reporters Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly, who Warner described in an email interview as “perfect bedfellows,” willdo fine. Owing to the fact that just as there are advertisers who have the power to take Imus off the air, Imus “will get advertising because...there are many advertisers that care only about ratings.”
Sources
Baker, Edwin C. Advertising and a Democratic
Press, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1994, p. 99.
Campbell, Richard, Christopher R. Martin, and
Bettina Fabor. Media & Culture: An
Introduction to Mass Communication. 5th
ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.
Chomsky, Noam and Edward S. Herman.
Manufacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media. New York:
Pantheon Books, 2002.
Hampp, Andrew. Email Interview. 29-30, October
2007.
Strickland, Katie. Email Interview. 24-25,
October 2007.
Warner, Charles H. Email Interview. 29,
October 2007.
Latest page update: made by laurengregory
, Oct 30 2007, 7:17 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by laurengregory
28 words added
18 words deleted
view changes
- complete history)
Edited by laurengregory
28 words added
18 words deleted
view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags:
advertiser
chomsky
imus
rutgers
More Info: links to this page