UPDATE: In early January 2018, Steve Bannon officially resigned from his role as executive chairman at Breitbart news due to controversy over comments he made about Trump and his family that surfaced in Michael Wolff's new book: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
UPDATE: In late August 2017, the Federal Trade Commission gave the green light for Amazon's acquisition with Whole Foods. Amazon Inc. has yet to withdraw its advertisements from Breitbart news.
Amazon is planning to acquire Whole Foods for a whopping $13.7 billion. This merger is going to be bad news for independent grocery stores, Whole Food workers, and a whole lot more.
But it’s also an opportunity to get Amazon to finally ditch Breitbart.
Already, Whole Foods employees are taking to social media to complain -- let’s join them. Breitbart (aka Trump News) does not align with the values of Whole Foods and shouldn’t be profiting from the company’s merger money.
Tell Amazon and Whole Foods: Ditch Breitbart.
Whole Foods claims its brand is all about altruism, sustainability and being good to farmers and the planet. Given this merger with Amazon, it’s even more important to uphold that brand.
Amazon employees have already been pushing from inside the company to get Amazon out of Breitbart. The company already committed to looking into third party ad blocking software that could block Amazon’s ads from showing up on websites like Breitbart, but still, Amazon remains one of Breitbart’s last advertising holdouts.
Amazon & Whole Foods: Don’t let any more advertising dollars go to hate.
Thanks to you, and the incredible leadership from our campaign partners The Sleeping Giants, we’ve already seen 90% of advertisers drop Breitbart. This is proof that people power works.
Right now, with this merger all over the news, Amazon needs to hear loud and clear that it can’t pretend to align with the values of Whole Foods while also funding hatred with its advertising dollars.
SumOfUs members across the planet have been working to pressure Amazon in some big ways. Last month, we took your message right to Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, Washington. There, with a powerful coalition of allies, we delivered over 2 million reasons Amazon needs to ditch Breitbart. We rented a plane and flew it over the AGM for all the world to see: Amazon needs to ditch Breitbart. Now.
Tell Amazon & Whole Foods: Enough is enough, ditch Breitbart today!
We got loads of media coverage and made sure Amazon know that we weren’t going anywhere (check out some of the buzz below). It can’t keep profiting off hate without us holding it to account.
We launched similar campaigns against Shopify and Disqus -- and thanks to you both companies have changed their hate speech policies as a result. Now, it’s time to get Amazon to put its money where its mouth is, and this Whole Foods merger is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Here's some of the press from the Amazon AGM: CNN Money, CNBC, The Hill, Patch, 24/7 Wallstreet, Geekwire
More information
Amazon isn't one of the 2,575 companies to pull ads
The Next Web. 22 August 2017.
The Next Web. 22 August 2017.
Whole Foods stock rockets 28% on $13.7 billion Amazon takeover deal
CNBC. 16 June 2017.
CNBC. 16 June 2017.
Canadian universities pull ads from hard-right news outlet Breitbart
The Globe and Mail. 27 January 2017.
The Globe and Mail. 27 January 2017.
Breitbart News pushes deeper into Europe
The Economist. 10 December 2016.
The Economist. 10 December 2016.
Creative Acceptance Policy
Amazon Advertising.
Amazon Advertising.