Open letter to Express advertisers
Here is a letter I am planning to send to advertisers in today's Daily Express, and also those on the Express and Star's website.
Dear all of you,
I don't want to criticise any of you. You're just trying to make a living and advertise your products to the widest possible range of readers. I understand that, and I don't want to in any way imply that you are, through your advertising, condoning the editorial content of the Daily Express and Daily Star, publications owned by Richard Desmond.
Of course, it's perfectly acceptable for any newspaper to say whatever it likes - and that free speech is one of the cornerstones of the society we enjoy today.
But I just want you to be aware of the kind of views your product is associated with. These newspapers unfortunately seem determined to pander to racists with their coverage. This isn't just a question of one or two articles, balanced as part of a lively debate; this is a pattern of offensive and unpleasant articles.
Today's front page stating that ONE IN FIVE BRITONS WILL BE ETHNICS is clearly offensive and misleading. We are all 'ethnics'. We all have a mixed heritage and to imply otherwise is to create an artificial distinction between white Britons and those from other backgrounds.
Furthermore, you should read today's Express editorial, which states:
THERE is no point in hankering after a return to the ethnically homogeneous Britain of the Forties. It is never coming back.
Nor is there much point in complaining that some of those who were pilloried as racists for claiming that immigrants were “taking over” their neighbourhoods in the Sixties and Seventies were telling the truth – though they were.
The Express is clearly saying that people who were described as racists in the 60s and 70s for saying immigrants were taking over were telling the truth. Is that the kind of opinion that fits the brand values of your business? Do you think that people who say 'immigrants are taking over' are not only right, but shouldn't be called racists?
Of course, juxtaposition is not tacit support. But does your brand have international values? Do you aspire to have customers from all ethnic backgrounds?
Last week, the Daily Express front page said NOW ASYLUM IF YOU'RE GAY. The Star said there was NO ROOM FOR GAYS. Again, do you aspire to have customers with a wide variety of lifestyles, or just straight white people? Perhaps if you are looking to advertise to the widest audience you can, there may be more suitable places to go.
I have no particular axe to grind with Richard Desmond or Northern and Shell, other than to be someone who despises covert and overt prejudice against minority groups in newspapers. I am afraid that this kind of thing is becoming more and more commonplace in these publications.
I should be very grateful if you could respond to me at your earliest convenience.
Yours etc.
For your information: brands advertising on the Express website today include Npower, Lidl, Jeep, South West Trains, Pfizer, Expedia, The Economist and Drayton Manor Theme Park.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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July 13th, 2010 - 13:42
Beautifully written, and straight to the point.
July 13th, 2010 - 13:58
Excellent stuff. I may write my own open letter – without plagiarism, of course. Except for the plagiarism of ideas.
July 13th, 2010 - 14:10
Absolutely, the more the merrier…
July 13th, 2010 - 14:02
Any particular reason you’re targeting the paper’s website advertisers rather than the print edition? I suspect the latter counts for a larger chunk of the Express’s revenues.
July 13th, 2010 - 14:04
oh sorry, I just read the first line properly. please ignore my comment.
July 13th, 2010 - 14:40
I presume your intention is to persuade the advertisers to consider leaning on the Express & Star until they stop publishing their awful crap? Sorry to say, I don’t agree with this *at all*.
Newspapers should be run free of advertiser influence, regardless of their editorial content. Advertisers should not be given a say in what newspapers print. What would you say if an advertiser with a large marketing budget decided to withhold it from a newspaper unless they killed a negative story about them? It can not be allowed, and must not be encouraged.
If you want the Express & Star to stop publishing their shit, better to think of a way to get the message out to the readers, not the advertisers.
July 13th, 2010 - 14:48
But I am not telling advertisers to dictate editorial policy, nor do I imagine they do.
July 13th, 2010 - 23:55
I would assume the intent was not to have the advertisers say what appears in the paper but to refuse to question whether they wished to be associated with it. They removed adverts from the torrent of shit Glenn Beck spews why not the Express?
July 13th, 2010 - 23:57
ignore the “but refuse” that snuck in there.
July 13th, 2010 - 21:09
I am fairly sure Anton’s intention is to alert advertisers to the poison it sits next to at the Express in the hope they might reconsider spending money for advertisements in the paper and on the website. This is not the same as persuading them to lean on the editorial staff. And it’s especially not the same as, say, BP persuading papers not to run anti-big oil stories with the threat of withdrawing revenue.
July 13th, 2010 - 14:42
Have these gone to specific staff at the companies or a generic email address? Am I in a fantasy world hoping for a response or is one likely?
July 13th, 2010 - 14:55
I’m interested to see how they are going to respond to that. I feel like writing one too, but I find I get so angry about it it will end up a rant.
July 13th, 2010 - 15:08
I wrote to npower after the ‘No room for gays’ editorial in the Star. They replied, saying they didn’t advertise with the Star. When I sent them the screenshot, they said they’d look into it. I’m not holding my breath.
July 13th, 2010 - 15:16
I’ve just called NPower and told them I’ll be looking at alternative energy providers, because I don’t want to give money to a company that goes indirectly to the Express.
I’ve been given a reference number, and told that I should receive a letter in the post within seven days.
July 13th, 2010 - 20:50
I wish I wasn’t so anxious about everything, or I’d do this. While I was at it, I’d change my bank from HSBC to the Co-op. Electricity companies, phone companies, banks etc all scare me witless. Stupid mental illness and phobia of phones.
July 14th, 2010 - 10:37
Celia, like other banks the Co-op are doing the ‘we do all the work’ switching thing. You don’t have to use phones, it can be done online in a couple of minutes. And they give you 50 quid if you’re not totally happy with the switch. Dead easy, and takes your money substantially further from the arms dealing, fossil extracting scumpigs.
http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
July 13th, 2010 - 16:07
Is there a list of email addresses that you can provide to save all of us lazy buggers the trouble of looking them up for ourselves? (I plan on writing my own letter, but this kind of research is a right proper pain.)
Also, are you okay with me forwarding this link to a Facebook group who are similarly angry with the Express?
July 13th, 2010 - 16:14
By all means, link away…
List of advertisers will take a while to compile. I’m hoping to have sent all emails off by tomorrow PM.
July 13th, 2010 - 16:19
Great letter, and one which I may well paraphrase and send off in support.
I have one major qualm with it though, which is this:
“Again, do you aspire to have customers with a wide variety of lifestyles, or just straight white people?”
Whilst I’m sure it isn’t your intention, using the word “lifestyle” strongly implies that being gay is a lifestyle choice rather than an essential inherent part of one’s sexuality. That puts you in the same rhetorical camp as “Philippa cure-me-some-gays Stroud” and I’m sure you’d want to separate yourself as far from her as possible (without the fallback of ejecting hthe numpty into space).
July 13th, 2010 - 16:37
I’m sorry if I gave that impression. As you probably guessed, that’s not what I think at all.
July 13th, 2010 - 20:04
And here is a story about a judicial decision in a state with a 98% Muslim population that hasn’t been reported in the Mail or the Express.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bangladesh-outlaws-punishment-by-fatwa-2024396.html
Now, why ever might that be?
July 13th, 2010 - 22:14
I’ll be writing to their advertisers. It was the gay asylum seeker nonsense that pushed it over the edge for me.
July 14th, 2010 - 01:22
What’s with the ‘paraphrase’ lark, Anton, I want this letter fucking template to send to all the advertisers mentioned above. If, and I certainly use two of the afore-mentioned commercial entities, some of my energy or magazine providers decide to advertise with this nonsensical racist clap trap then I want nothing to do with them – And I want them to know why I decide to move.
It is an awful juxtaposition we live in, a world driven by the consumer, and unfortunately numbers and sales and perception are the only things that concern corporations; in a slightly different order to the one I portray. If a decent number of people constantly pressurize these brands, they will change tact. They will reduce investment in these media outlets. They have to.
Not for one second do I believe that any advertiser should apply pressure to the ‘newspaper’, for content or editorial line; but if we think it doesn’t happen we are only being naive?
The refusal to acknowledge any relationship with these media outlets in itself outlines the ignorance of certain brands and they could only ‘benefit’ from more people getting in touch with the advertising and marketing types responsible for this corporate relationship in the first place…
Or, is Britain just a racist haven driven by ignorance and bigotry; promoted by a media reflecting the opinions of the people?
July 14th, 2010 - 15:59
Incidentally, doesn’t Northern and Shell own The Pink Paper? They certainly used to, if they don’t now.
July 18th, 2010 - 12:11
No, Northern and Shell used to own Attitude.
The Pink Paper was run by a company (various ones, actually, seemed to change every few years, even though the proprietor remained the same) called Mind Master. They also published Boyz. It closed for a while, tried its hand at being a news magazine, and is now in the hands of Millivres Prowler, who also publish Gay Times.
I’m pretty certain it never passed through the hands of N&S.
July 14th, 2010 - 16:11
could always just not buy the newspapers in the first place, the advertisers would soon turn their backs of their own accord when readership plummets. just a thought. might be more productive trying to re-educate the mass of people who presumably subscribe to these views as their continued readership of these titles surely implies.
July 14th, 2010 - 16:13
You mention racism and homophobia, but one of the most pernicious ‘isms’ promulgated by these papers is sexism. Should never be left out of discussions.