Sponsors were rushing for the exits of the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday as fallout over an audiotape of a racist rant allegedly made by L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling continued into a new week.
As of late afternoon in L.A. on Monday, Virgin America, State Farm, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Yokohama Tires, Red Bull, CarMax, and Aquahydrate all either suspended or severed ties with the NBA team, each issuing a statement that basically said “we stand by the fans and the players, but these statements don’t reflect our values.”
State Farm CEO Steve Stoute told ESPN on Monday that he was pressuring other companies to pull their sponsorship dollars.
Clippers Point Guard Chris Paul is featured in State Farm’s current ad campaign, and the company was quick to point out that it will still run the “Born to Assist” spots featuring him.
The entire Sterling episode, has shown the power—once again—of Hollywood gossip site TMZ, which has branched out into sports gossip with gusto.
The site, which broke the audio tape story over the weekend, has done a full court press of follow-up, tracking down reaction from a bevy of celebs and generally forcing the traditional media outlets to chase its leads.
Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz said that he wasn’t a fan of the site’s methods—including their habit of paying for scoops—but said he admired the “news-slash-gossip machine that Harvey Levin built.”
Kurtz points out that it’s the latest in a long line of stories that prove TMZ “can play in the big leagues.” It was TMZ, after all, that broke Mel Gibson’s anti-semitic rant, Michael Richards’ comedy club meltdown, Alec Baldwin’s tirade at his daughter, and the first news of Michael Jackson’s death.
“The Donald Sterling story was a slam dunk. And by the time it plays out, the owner is going to wish that TMZ had stuck to celebs,” Kurtz wrote on Monday.
Read More: The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, AdWeek
Brief Take: Behold the power of the Internet! Sterling’s long (and well-documented) history of racism allegations was largely ignored until a celebrity gossip site got ahold of raw audio. That’s the kind of development that will make sponsors flee in less than 48 hours flat.
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