Keurig CEO Sorry Over Decision to Pull Hannity Ads: ‘Appearance of Taking Sides’

By Published on November 14, 2017

The CEO of Keurig apologized Monday for pulling ads from Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News following his coverage of sexual assault allegations against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.

CEO Bob Gamgort apologized to Keurig’s employees for their decision to pull their advertising from Hannity’s show in a memo obtained by The Washington Post. Gangort said it is an “unacceptable” situation, and that the move unintentionally gave the appearance of “taking sides” in the Moore allegations. He said the company would typically “pause” ads in a situation like this and review the strategy at a later date, but that the decision to broadcast that pause over Twitter was “highly unusual.”

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

“This gave the appearance of ‘taking sides’ in an emotionally charged debate that escalated on Twitter and beyond over the weekend, which was not our intent,” Gamgort wrote in the memo. “Clearly, this is an unacceptable situation that requires an overhaul of our issues response and external communications policies and the introduction of safeguards to ensure this never happens again … The nature of social media and the internet news environment is that stories like this explode, and generally do not disappear quickly.”

Supporters of Moore, who has been accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s, and fans of Hannity called for a boycott of Keurig over the weekend, after the brand announced it would pull the ads.

The company responded to a Twitter inquiry asking Keurig to rethink its advertising agreement with Hannity’s program Saturday, explaining they have worked with Fox News to prevent their ads from airing during Hannity’s show.

“Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show,” Keurig tweeted at a Twitter commenter.

Hannity said that he would buy “500 coffee makers” late Sunday evening to give away to fans who put out the best video of smashing their Keurigs coffee makers.

 

Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

Copyright 2017 The Daily Caller News Foundation

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Scarcity Mindset
Robert Morris
More from The Stream
Connect with Us