Advertisers Pause Facebook Ads in Response to The #StopHateForProfit Boycott

As protests continue throughout the nation against long-standing racial injustice and police brutality, corporations are joining the movement by calling on Facebook to address the hate and disinformation being spread on its platform by joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott.

On June 17th, civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, and Common Sense Media, launched the campaign #StopHateForProfit boycott to send a message to Facebook that “its lack of action is not good enough.”

Facebook, which also includes Instagram and Whatsapp, has long been the focus of discussion involving a lack of regulation of content on its platform. These issues have been recently amplified by the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and in particular, Facebook’s refusal to censor or take action on a specific post shared by President Trump that stated, in regards to the protests, “...when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Their lack of action against hate speech prompted the launch of the #StopHateForProfit boycott.

The #StopHateForProfit boycott encourages businesses to use the power of their dollar and pull all advertising spend from Facebook and Instagram for the month of July to pressure Facebook into meeting the demands listed here, aimed at achieving increased accountability, decency, and support from Facebook.

“… Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and violence.” - reads a statement from the campaign website.

As of June 30th, companies such as Unilever (the parent company of Dove, Lipton, Axe, Vaseline, Suave, St Ives, TRESemme, Hellman’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, and Klondike to name a few), Adidas, Starbucks, Coca-cola, Verizon, Patagonia, REI, Honda, Lululemon, Levi’s, The North Face, Eileen Fisher, Arc'teryx, Eddie Bauer, and more have pledged to pull advertising from Facebook and Instagram, some for the month of July, others for the rest of 2020.

As a digital marketing agency, we at Avenue are keeping our finger on the pulse of what’s evolving with advertisers, Facebook, and the #StopHateForProfit boycott to ensure our clients are abreast current trends, provided with creative solutions for furthering their marketing goals and can make their own informed decisions about their advertising dollars. We’d love to hear from you, what are your thoughts on the #StopHateForProfit boycott and what would you like to see from advertisers and Facebook?

Updated July 1st, 2020: The following companies have joined the #StopHateForProfit boycott since this post published on June 30th, 2020: The Clorox Company, Ford, Denny's, Volkswagen, Microsoft, Blue Bottle Coffee, Chobani, Kind Snacks, Sesame Street, Campbell Soup Co, LEGO Group, Dunkin Brands, The Body Shop US, Dr. Bronners, and CVS Health.

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