Sainsbury’s ends advertising campaign with GB News following backlash over Nigel Farage

Sainsbury’s has confirmed its advertising campaign with GB News has come to an end after it saw itself at the centre of a row for being among a handful of brands running adverts on Nigel Farage’s GB News show.

The supermarket chain was criticised for ‘not replying’ to customers complaining about the link after campaign group Led By Donkeys put up billboards calling out brands who advertise on the show - which is controversial due to comments Farage made about RNLI and migrants.

Farage has received sustained criticism from politicians and members of the public after he compared the RNLI to a “taxi service for illegal trafficking gangs”. Speaking on GB News, the former Brexit Party politician spoke out against the number of migrants entering the UK prompting the RNLI to receive a surge in donations.

Meanwhile, when it was launched, GB News was boycotted by a plethora of major advertisers wishing to distance themselves from the brand for fears it would platform controversial views, presumably like these. They were supported by campaign group Stop Funding Hate.

Other brands Led By Donkeys said still advertise on the channel and Farage’s show in particular include Kelloggs, Halfords, NOW TV, the National Lottery and Compare the Market.

But the bulk of their efforts were reserved for the supermarket brand after they failed to respond to public criticism.

The group drove a car outside Sainsbury’s headquarters with a billboard attached which read:

“Sainsbury’s is ignoring thousands of customers who are not happy with them advertising on Nigel Farage’s TV show.”

They then showed a slideshow of tweets slamming the brand and asked “Why the silence Sainsbury’s?”

Since then, a spokesperson from Sainsbury’s has confirmed they were telling customers the advertising campaign had ended.

A spokesperson said:

“We are a non-political organisation. We advertise across a wide range of media outlets, including TV to reach all of our customers. Our latest multi-channel TV campaign, which has now ended, included a very small number of ads appearing during the GB News programme. Our customers’ feedback is very important to us, and we continue to regularly review our marketing activity.”

Led By Donkeys hailed this as a success and claimed that it was due to their actions:

Indy100 has dropped GB News a line to see what they have to say.

All in all, it seems like Farage is causing the channel more trouble than he’s worth. Who knew?