Eloquii pulls advertising from Sean Hannity show
Columbus-based plus-size retailer Eloquii is one of the companies that has pulled its advertising from Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show after the host was criticized for his perceived defense of Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is accused of sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl several decades ago.
In a Twitter posting responding to several inquiries, Eloquii said, in part, “We can confirm that we have blocked Hannity from our advertising list.”
Other advertisers that have pulled their commercials include DNA testing company 23 and Me, food delivery service Hello Fresh, natural supplement maker Nature’s Bounty, Green Mountain Coffee and Keurig coffee maker.
In the case of the coffee maker, supporters of the conservative talk show host responded to the decision by posting videos online of themselves smashing their Keurigs. In one video, a blogger promoted what he called the “Keurig Smash Challenge” while taking a hammer to his brewer. In another, a user smashed a Keurig brewer by tossing it from the second story of a building. In yet another video, a man teed off on the coffee maker with a golf club.
Eloquii has not responded to inquiries about whether the retailer is blocking Hannity from its ad list because of the Moore controversy. But the announcement that Eloquii would block the talk show host came the day after Hannity appeared to agree with a producer on his show that Moore’s alleged sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl was “consensual.”
Hannity asked how one could “possibly ... know the truth.”
Liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America has been putting public pressure on Hannity’s advertisers for months. The group’s president, Angelo Carusone, told The Associated Press that it again called for companies to stop supporting Hannity’s program after the allegations against Moore came to light last week in a Washington Post story.