It had seemed earlier this week that The Walt Disney Company finally figured out that getting in the middle of deeply divisive political issues was not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders.
After all, as one financial analyst put it, the “wheels have come off” the company’s stock this year, plummeting “34% year to date versus a 12% decline for the benchmark index.”
So, following the debacle of Disney’s and CEO Bob Chapek‘s (pictured above) criticism of the Florida parental rights law — which shredded the company’s image and cost it (among other things) a favorable special taxing district for its theme parks in the Sunshine State — the entertainment giant attempted neutrality this week in refusing to air leftists’ political ads on the streaming service Hulu, which it majority-owns and controls.
But Democrats bashed Disney for refusing to run their ads on abortion, gun control and climate change on Hulu. From Mediaite:
The refusal to take on the ads is likely a move to steer away from any material that could inspire controversy on the streamer as Suraj Patel, a Democratic congressional candidate in New York, said earlier this month that a Hulu representative told his campaign ad he wanted to run on abortion, gun control, and climate change was too “sensitive.”
“Your ban on mobilization messaging has a perverse effect on Democracy,” the Democrat wrote in a letter addressed to Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Hulu President Joe Earley. The ad was allowed to run after Patel replaced footage of the January 6 Capitol riot with Donald Trump and changed “climate change” with “democracy,” according to the [Washington] Post…
According to Hulu’s advertiser guidelines, the streamer will refuse any ad that “takes a position on a controversial issue of public importance (e.g. social issues).”
Also from Mashable earlier this week: “Ads are coming to another Disney-owned platform: Disney+, but the company has already stated that it would not allow political advertising on that service.”
But alas, after a withering assault from the left, now Disney will allow the Democrats’ ads to run on Hulu after all. Breitbart reports:
Disney said Hulu will now accept advertisements “covering a wide spectrum of policy positions” in a statement sent to multiple news outlets on Wednesday. At the center of the controversy were two commercials paid for by Democrat organizations that Hulu had rejected.
One of the commercials used the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Roe v. Wade to attack Republicans and urge viewers to vote Democrat in the November midterms. The second ad promoted gun control and blamed GOP leaders for shooting deaths…The pressure campaign worked…
Next question: Will Disney/Hulu accept political advertising from Republican candidates on the other side of sensitive issues as well?
