FINALLY! Advertisers Issue Ultimatum To NFL Over National Anthem Protests – NO WIGGLE ROOM

06 Nov, 2017 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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That took long enough. NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, finally bit the bullet and admitted Friday that the anthem protesters had hurt NFL ratings. She also said that NBC advertisers are now threatening to pull their ads should NBC continue to cover the anthem protests. Good. That is excellent news. That’s exactly what people should be doing. Evidently, the advertisers are not being public about this, but behind the scenes, they are pissed. Who could blame them? They didn’t sign up to commit financial suicide right along with the Marxist, disrespectful NFL.

“There is a list of advertisers that have made themselves very clear: ‘If you continue to cover the political coverage of the issue, we will not be part of the NFL,’” Yaccarino said. “Think about it—they have half the country that is cheering about that and half the country that is emailing them saying, ‘Don’t do that.’ That’s a real thing.” Man, that restores my faith in American business just a bit. Consumers are ticked and they are letting their voice be heard. Looks like the NFL is finally being forced to listen for a change.

According to Yaccarino, the NFL’s broadcast partners only started airing the National Anthem after the controversy began. It’s sheer political activism through sports… it’s propaganda. Marketers want the focus put back on games and not politics. Sounds sane to me.

We heard over the weekend that Papa John’s is on the verge of pulling their advertising with the NFL. According to CNN:

Papa John’s is reconsidering its sponsorship of the NFL amid declining ratings, the pizza chain confirmed to CNBC.

Papa John’s executives told The Wall Street Journal that top executives discuss returns on their advertising dollars with the NFL weekly and will see what happens for the rest of the season before making a decision. Additionally, Papa John’s is completely rethinking its advertising strategy as consumers cut the cord and move to digital.

[…] Papa John’s founder John Schnatter slammed NFL leadership on Wednesday for not resolving the kneeling protests. He blamed the NFL for lackluster third-quarter pizza sales as the company’s stock sank 11 percent.

Yaccarino is trying her best to assure the public that so far, advertisers haven’t pulled out of NFL games because of the protests. It’s not working and I suspect she’s lying anyway. At any rate, all of that will change and soon probably. Marketers are vowing to pull their ads if a change isn’t made and soon. “Marketers have said, ‘We will not be part of the NFL if you continue covering it,’” Yaccarino said. So, what will the NFL do? Hide it? Or actually do the right thing and put a stop to it? Could this be the beginning of the end of ‘Kneelgate’? Let’s hope so.