Following a report in the New York Times about allegations of sexual harassment against Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, at least two advertisers pulled ad buys from the show.
Mercedes-Benz said Monday that it had pulled ads from “The O’Reilly Factor,” and Hyundai followed suit early Tuesday morning.
“Yes, we had advertising running on The O’Reilly Factor (we run on most major cable news shows) and it has been reassigned in the midst of this controversy,” Donna Boland, a spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz, told CNN in a statement on Monday. “The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.”
Hyundai said in a statement that it had not been running ads on the Fox News show but that it had pulled a planned ad buy.
“As a company we seek to partner with companies and programming that share our values of inclusion and diversity. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as we plan future advertising decisions,” the company said in a statement, per CNN.
The New York Times on Saturday published a report revealing that five women have received payouts from O’Reilly or 21st Century Fox after allegations of sexual harassment and other behavior. Two of the settlements came after Roger Ailes left the network over sexual harassment allegations last year, according to the New York Times. The women “have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating,” the New York Times reported.
