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So by now, everyone knows that BP and Morgan Stanley have basically said that if a media outlet is going to run negative press on them, they have the right to pull all advertising from said media outlet. In other words, they’re holding the media hostage.
Ad Age and everyone else in the world is up in arms about this. And rightly so. Except for one small detail – It’s not the first time this has been done.
For YEARS, advertisers have pulled their ads when someone published something bad about them. Airlines do it all the time – you’ll never see airline ads after major coverage of a crash – sometimes for as long as a month.
Why is it making news? Only because BP and Morgan Stanley are the first companies to actually put it in their contracts. But insofar as the first companies doing it? Not a chance, not by a long shot.
Ad Age Editorial here.
