Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have announced they are having a baby
EA UK and Natwest have joined a growing list of companies cancelling advertising with the Daily Mail following its Tom Daley column.
Daley, 25, recently announced that he would be having a baby with his partner Dustin Lance Black, who he married last year.
But Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn’s opinion piece was branded ‘homophobic’ as he took aim at the Olympic swimmer.
In the article, Littlejohn said: ‘I still cling to the belief that children benefit most from being brought up by a man and a woman. Please don’t pretend two dads is the new normal.’
EA, Southbank, Centre Parcs – who will be next to distance themselves from the Daily Mail? (Picture: Daily Mail)
EA does not ‘do messages that go against’ its values
The past few days have seen brands pledging to pull adverts from the newspaper, for risk of a ‘conflict of interests’.
The Southbank and holiday resort company Centre Parcs were first to publicly denounce the Daily Mail for its actions, reports The Drum.
But on Friday BBC2 presenter Sarah O’Connell called out a list of companies including Now TV and Halifax.
EA is now looking to ensure that adverts placed were not done ‘parallel to messages that go against our values’.
O’Connell tweeted: ‘@NOWTVHelp @NowTV @TravelodgeUK @ElectronicArts @AskHalifaxBank Why are YOU advertising alongside this homophobic article?
‘Speak to @StopFundingHate & support the #LGBT community instead. #LGBTHM18 #StopFundingHate #StartSpreadingLove’
Hey Sarah – We wanted to reach out and thank you for bringing this to our attention earlier this morning. We’ve worked with our teams throughout the day to ensure that the placement of any advertisement is not done parallel to messages that go against our values.
— EA UK (@electronicarts) February 16, 2018
In response, EA said it has been working to ensure their brand did not reflect the views of Littlejohn.
‘Hey Sarah – We wanted to reach out and thank you for bringing this to our attention earlier this morning.
‘We’ve worked with our teams throughout the day to ensure that the placement of any advertisement is not done parallel to messages that go against our values.’
EA are joining the thousands who support Tom Daley after Littlejohn’s article took aim at him and Dustin (PIcture: Twitter/ Tom Daley)
‘Completely unacceptable’
A Centre Parcs advert appeared next to the article on the of publication, which led to the company branding it ‘completely unacceptable’.
The company said it has ‘a number of steps to prevent our advertising from appearing alongside inappropriate content.
‘We felt this placement was completely unacceptable and therefore ceased advertising with the Daily Mail with immediate effect,’ it continued.
A growing list of companies pulling advertising
Activist group Stop Funding Hate named companies that had advertised in the paper on that day and later tweeted:
‘Customers speaking out to challenge media hate is all about free speech: The Mail can print what it likes, but we’re also allowed to say “not with my money!”.
‘It’s a misrepresentation to claim that the right to free expression obliges the rest of us to subsidise bigotry.’
In the last hour, Natwest – the sponsors of the British LGBT Awards – also joined the list of companies pulling ads after SFH challenged them for their advert on Littlejohn’s page.
At NatWest we have a proud tradition of supporting our LGBT customers and colleagues. We take these issues very seriously and have multiple measures in place to try and ensure our material doesn’t appear next to content which is 1/2
— NatWest (@NatWest_Help) February 17, 2018
obscene, illegal or is at odds with our values. We don’t support the content in this article, and are investigating how our advertising has appeared here. Meanwhile we have stopped our TV ad from featuring on this page. 2/2 DR
— NatWest (@NatWest_Help) February 17, 2018
