Well, it looks like mattress manufacturers know their demographic: People who aren't scared of Teh Sex! I just got off the phone with a lovely customer service operator at Select Comfort Corporation, the makers of the Sleep Number Bed, who sponsored the radio ravings of Rush 'I-Hate-Those-Scary-Scary-Womenz' Limbaugh. Yes, I said SPONSORED, as in 'past tense.'
Leap over the squiggly thingie...
After briefly stating my bad-back bona fides, so 'Jessica' would know I was a serious potential customer for her company's product, I explained that me and my messed-up lumbar region could never consider the wonderful Sleep Number Bed while that same mattress supported Rush. She cheerfully explained that the ads have been pulled, and offered to transfer me to a voicemail line where I could leave my feedback for the company. I replied that dropping Rush so quickly was all that I needed!
We can do this. Next on my list: AutoZone. They have stores in my area. I buy LOTS of auto parts. I do! Bottles of wiper fluid every year!
A list of Rush sponsors is here.
----------->>>UPDATIEST UPDATE OF UPDATES<<<-----------
Saturday, 9pm: Please read, rec & take action on madhaus' most-excellent idea: Follow @SandraFluke on Teh Twitter Machine. I predict it will take less than a day for her to surpass @YouKnowWho's # of followers: she's only 10k behind. And we know that to him, size matters.
UPDATE OF UPDATES: SATURDAY 745p Eastern
Carbonite is now OUT!!! Here is a statement from CEO David Friend, posted in the Carbonite Facebook page:
“No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.”
(h/t to cmpnwtr, who has been working hard on the #RushBoycott, for alerting me to this!
Yesterday, Carbonite seemed the MOST resistant company; today, this rejection of Rush is unequivocal. Direct contact from YOU, the customers, is making a difference! And if you haven't read Rush's galling non-apology in Kaili's diary this evening, it should provide even more motivation!
Apologies for the zillions of updates: The story has been unfolding all afternoon. As of 10:30pm Eastern on Friday 2 March, the current tally of confirmed Rush rejectors reads:
1) Sleep Train Mattresses
2) Select Comfort Corporation, makers of the Sleep Number Bed
3) Quicken Loans
4) The Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA Basketball team
5) Citrix, makers of GoToMyPC
6) LegalZoom.com
7) Carbonite
--->Joan McCarter's FP diary is keeping up faster than I can. A girl's gotta eat!
--->And don't miss ipsos' fantastic diary, How to take action on the local level against Limbaugh, for specific tips on pressuring local radio stations and advertisers.
Please thank those who have jumped on board early. Lots of other companies are making all sorts of statements in response to heavy consumer pressure. (Please read what I've posted below from Kossack Els on why it may be hard to pin down exactly which companies 'sponsor' Rush.) Let's keep it up! This is a fight we can win!!!
----------->>>POLITE REQUEST<<<-------------
Yes, Rush is a nasty, nasty man. Yes, every filthly moniker you could conjure from your keyboard applies. This is an action-oriented diary, however, not an 'out-gutter-talk-Rush' fest. I swore like a salty seadog before I hit puberty...just ask my Mom. Here's the song that coursed through my iPod while my Left Booby was radiated on 35 separate occasions for breast cancer last year:
I am no shrinking violet. But let's hit Rush where it hurts: In the pocketbook. Keep the name-calling out of this diary. We'll let Cee Lo speak for us instead. Thanks!
PERSONAL UPDATE, 5:30pm: I hope it's okay to pause for a minute of personal reflection. I've been here a little over four years, arriving in January '08, sick to death after 8 years of W. It's been a rollercoaster; and the view from the inside hasn't always been pretty. But I just posted my 25,000th comment at dKos, here in this diary, my first atop the Wreck List. I'm glad it's a diary about ACTION: What we can do when we all pull together to accomplish something, fighting the outrageous, anti-American behavior of the right.
Thanks, fellow Kossacks. Guess I'll hang around a little while longer... ;-)
UPDATE, 6:02pm: A comment from
DefendOurConstitution reinforces that women AND men are allied in this fight together:
Plus guy power (to the guys that stand up for all (22+ / 0-)
women)! This is not a woman's issue - it is an attack on all people with any common decency. I am a man and am thoroughly offended, not just because it affects my wife, my daughter, my sisters, my nieces, my female friends, etc. because this is a disgusting feature of the Republican Hatred Machine - TM. Any man that is not as offended as I am needs to wake up and start screaming!
Amen, my brother.
A-men.
UPDATE UMPTEENsquared: Conflicting lists of sponsors are circulating online, and several corporations are denying that they advertise on Rush's show. A comment from Els about how companies actually purchase radio air time illuminates how ads might air while corporations could claim they don't 'directly' choose to sponsor Rush:
It's called "run of day" or "daypart" advertising (7+ / 0-)
Rather than sign up for a particular show, the advertiser or their agency looks to target a certain time or daypart.
As an example, ads for cereal might run the mornings while tv shoes would want to run a few hours before the broadcast regardless of whatever else was on.
Purchasing a day part provides the advertiser with less expensive air time because they give more flexibility to the station. The least expensive time is often "run of day" which means the station can put it anywhere. Those usually end up at 2:00 am on the worst possible programming, although if a sales person is paying attention, they'll divert ads to better time slots to raise the total Gross Rating Point value for the schedule.
So it looks like some companies could be caught having made a genuine boo-boo, and some may be using this as a bogus excuse. We report; you decide. ;-)
UPDATE, courtesy of Tex Mex: There is an error on the above list of sponsors. Pain reliever Blue-Emu has posted a memo on its Facebook page clarifying that it ran radio ads 10 years ago that may have appeared, in some markets, on Rush's show. But it does not currently have any marketing in any way connected with Rush now.
1:15 PM PT: UPDATE: @SleepNumberSara Tweeted this afternoon: "Recent comments by Rush Limbaugh do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program."
1:37 PM PT: Think Progress is reporting that Quicken Loans is out, too! Kelly@QuickenLoans Tweeted: "Due to continued inflammatory comments– along w/valuable feedback from clients & team members– QL has suspended ads on Rush Limbaugh program."
2:13 PM PT: UPDATE: All hail the Men Who Get It: "The Cleveland Cavaliers have decided to suspend any and all on-air advertising with the Rush Limbaugh radio program, citing 'inflammatory comments' coupled with valuable feedback from both clients and team employees. This news comes from the team’s majority owner Dan Gilbert." via Think Progress, and Waitingfornextyear.com.
2:45 PM PT: mayrose tells me that Rep. Jan Schakowsky will be on MSNBC's Politics Nation with host Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss Rush's recent bout of logorhhea. Tonight, 6p Eastern. Rev. Al does a great job of focusing on lots of issues that aren't getting enough coverage, such as voter suppression. Tune in!
2:57 PM PT: broths has an AWESOME suggestion in the comments: Send a thank you email to a company that pulls its sponsorship. Let 'em know how much you appreciate what they've done, and how it will affect your buying decisions!
3:24 PM PT: Looks like Carbonite REALLY wants to hear from YOU! Per allenjo below, CEO David Friend's online statement reads, in part: "And it's not really for us to parse radicals from reactionaries, believers from atheists, or arrogant from humble. Once you start going down that path, you might as well shutter your business and retire." Well, let's help Friend reach his retirement dreams!
Corporate Headquarters
177 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Main Office: 617-587-1100
Toll Free: 877-665-4466
6:52 PM PT: h/t to Kossacks 4fx & wolfwood: Less than an hour ago, the Facebook page for GoToMyPC posted this message:
"Over the past day, we’ve heard from many great Citrix customers about our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. These customers have expressed their growing concern that some of his recent comments seem inconsistent with the core values Citrix has always stood for – humility, integrity and respect.
"While Citrix obviously does not control any show’s content or endorse opinions of their hosts, we do take the concerns of our customers seriously. When they are upset about something, we listen. After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show."
Another one bites the dust!