Congratulations are in order for the latest Fox News host to find their hateful word vomit cause a loss of ad revenue. Tucker Carlson’s vile take on immigration Thursday has led Pacific Life Insurance to “pause” their commercials from his nightly xenophobic screamfest, the company announced Friday.
The Pacific Life announcement marks a big milestone for the boy wonder: Unlike his cruel colleagues, this is the first time ol’ Tuck has felt this particular kind of heat.
Carlson has not previously sustained a longterm advertising boycott effort, though his primetime counterpart, Laura Ingraham, faced advertiser revolts following comments made about both child detention centers ("essentially summer camps") and former Parkland high school student David Hogg.
What, pray tell, could the bowtie-less boy wonder possibly have done to trigger such a move by the 150-year old insurance giant? Quite simply, he went on a hate-filled rant about immigration, and when “Tucker Carlson Tonight” cut to commercial so TC could clear the rage spittle from his babyface, a Pacific Life insurance was the palate cleanser.
In addition to calling asylum seekers “cynical shakedown artists who have been watching too much CNN,” Carlson framed immigration as a process embraced by decent Americans—while simultaneously asserting his own indecency.
Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided. Immigration is a form of atonement.
Previous leaders of our country committed sins -- we must pay for those sins by welcoming an endless chain of migrant caravans. That's the argument they make.
It was only after being called out Twitter that Pacific Life pulled their ads … for now. Predictably, the insurance company framed their action as a “pause,” while they embark on a politely-described “reevaluation” of their “relationship” with the frozen food heir’s daily hate hour.
Fox News, predictably, blamed the left, instead of, you know, the guy spewing bigoted diarrhea from his facehole.
"It is a shame that left-wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed ‘media watchdogs’ weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech. We continue to stand by and work with our advertisers through these unfortunate and unnecessary distractions," a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to other advertisers; so far, only Farmers Insurance has responded to confirm their commitment to the show, which should be renamed Tucky’s White Supremacy “News” Hour.
A spokesman for Farmers Insurance, which also advertised during Thursday night's episode, provided a statement on Friday night suggesting it's not pulling out.
"Farmers invests in advertising across a broad range of networks and programs that reflect the diversity of opinions and viewpoints found across the nation," he said. "Advertising decisions made by Farmers should not be construed to be an endorsement of any kind as to a show’s content or the individuals appearing on the show."
I may be alone here, but that catchy Farmers jingle is forever changed in my head after reading that.
🎵 We love Tucker, bum ba-dum bum bum bum🎵
The Sleeping Giants initiative, which is devoted to making “bigotry and sexism less profitable,” is spearheading a callout campaign to other Carlson advertisers, starting with travel booking site Expedia.