U.S. Cellular pulls out of Sinclair (sort of)

Didn't see any mention of this ante. After the jump is the e-mail I just got from U.S. Cellular:

Thank you for your message. As a non-partisan corporation, U.S. Cellular does not take a position in the presidential race. We have no plans to cancel our advertising on Sinclair Broadcasting affiliates. However, we believe the program "Stolen Honor" does not provide an optimal environment for our advertising. Therefore, we have instructed Sinclair affiliates not to run U.S. Cellular commercial spots within two hours of the program's airing.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Lisa C. Customer Care U.S. Cellular

•  Not Good Enough

  That's no way to punish Sinclair.  "You can have our money, but not for those four hours."

  Sorry, that's a punk-ass respose.  Keep after them.

  by Cyberactor on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:15:29 PM PDT

  •  Better than nothing

    Especially if we get the word out that advertisers are responding. While it won't hurt their bottom line directly, news of this could adversely affect their stock price. The furor is already being covered on some online investing sites.

    by DJ Adequate on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:24:40 PM PDT

  •  Punks

    Oh yeah, I agree. I wrote back this:

    Thank you for your e-mail. I appreciate U.S. Cellular's nonpartisan stance.

    I hope U.S. Cellular will consider a more substantive response to Sinclair's behavior, for as it stands the company continues to tacitly fund their behavior, which to my eye is a decidedly partisan act.

    Sincerely,

    by Schmuck on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:30:08 PM PDT

    •  How polite of you

      This was a very courteous message.  Also very easy to ignore, alas.

      by sj on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:38:07 PM PDT

  •  Agreed

    Not good enough

    by sj on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:36:34 PM PDT

•  response

  "Thank you for taking this initial step.  I am writing to ask that you completely withdraw from advertising on Sinclair.  I understand why your company wants to have it both ways, but I cannot support your company so long as it advertises on these stations."

  by seamus on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:17:34 PM PDT

•  Stolen Honour being run commercial free

  Definitely not good enough.  Stolen Honour is being run commercial free, so they are essentially doing nothing.  Write them back and tell them that that just isn't going to cut it

  by pontificator on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:25:49 PM PDT

•  this is a bullshit response

  it's all in this line:

  "However, we believe the program 'Stolen Honor' does not provide an optimal environment for our advertising."

  that basically means "we would advertise during 'Stolen Honor' but we can get more bang for our buch elsewhere."

  so they're pullin gour for purely ECONOMIC reasons, not because they think what Sinclair is doing is wrong. that's crap, and this is not a victory for us against sinclair.

  i hope anyone who uses u.s. celluar pulls out of them immediately.

  by scottesposito on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:45:13 PM PDT

  •  economics

    I agree it's a bullshit response. But of course they're responding for economic reasons; that's why we're trying to create economic pressure on them. Nothing else much works.
    

    by Schmuck on Fri Oct 15, 2004 at 01:59:27 PM PDT