The poll comes after Fox News, whose median viewer in 2017 was age 65, according to Adweek citing Nielsen data, had multiple brands pull advertisements from programs hosted by Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro following controversial comments.
After Carlson’s past remarks about women and child rape surfaced last month, several advertisers, including AstraZeneca PLC and Sheex Inc., pulled their ads from his show. Fifty-one percent of those 50+ said they would be less likely to purchase a product or service from a brand airing an ad during a news or talk show whose host made a sexist statement, compared to 41 percent in the 18-49 demo.
Brands such as Allergan PLC, Letgo and NerdWallet Inc. removed their ads from “Justice w/ Judge Jeanine” after Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), saying that Omar’s wearing a hijab meant that she was "Sharia-compliant.” Fox News later came out against Pirro’s comments, saying in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that “we strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar.” Forty-six percent of the 18-49 demographic said they would be less likely to purchase a product or service from a brand airing an ad during a news or talk show when a news anchor or a TV personality makes a racist statement, 7 percentage points less than the 53 percent of those 50+ who felt the same way.
Marianne Gambelli, head of ad sales for the network, told AdAge last month that “brand safety is being used too liberally and not necessarily fairly,” and added that advertisers were not leaving the network altogether, but rather “shifting into more of the news programming.”
Both groups were most forgiving of remarks made by television characters, with 22 percent of those 18-49 saying they would be less likely to buy a product if a brand advertised during a show where a character makes a controversial statement, and 33 percent of those 50+ sharing the sentiment.
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