BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai have all announced that they will suspend advertising from ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ after it emerged that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and his employer paid five women to settle sexual harassment and verbal abuse allegations.
O’Reilly’s show is the top-rated program on Fox News and the conservative host is thought to generate over $100 million in advertising revenue every year for the channel.
Despite his popularity, The New York Times uncovered that he had paid $13 million to five women to settle the aforementioned allegations.
Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, corporate communications manager at Mercedes-Benz, Donna Boland said “The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.”
These sentiments were echoed by Hyundai who released a statement reading “As a company, we seek to partner with companies and programming that share our values of inclusion and diversity. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as we plan future advertising decisions.”
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