Pepsi joining Facebook advertising boycott: report

Pepsi reportedly joined the advertising boycott that several companies are taking against Facebook, people close to the matter told Fox Business Sunday.

The second largest food and beverage company in the world is reportedly pulling ads from Facebook through July and August as part of a “global boycott,” sources told Fox Business. Pepsi has not yet made an official announcement on the subject. 

Pepsi’s boycott could have a large impact because of its large size, as it is reported to spend as much as $2.6 billion every year on marketing, promotion and advertising, the news outlet noted. Like most companies, Pepsi is spending an increasing portion of its advertising on social media websites. 

Facebook has been consistently criticized for not taking enough action to remove or addressing hate speech or comments considered inappropriate. As of Sunday, more than 150 companies, including Ben and Jerry’s and Patagonia, have vocally expressed their concerns about the platform and vowed to pull their Facebook ads.

Ad agency Goodby Silverstein announced last week that it would join the boycott against Facebook and is urging clients like Adobe, HP, PayPal and BMW to do the same. Pepsi is also one of the agency’s clients, according to Fox Business.

“We will join #StopHate4Profit and stop posting on @Facebook for the month of July,” the agency tweeted. “We are taking this action to protest the platform’s irresponsible propagation of hate speech, racism, and misleading voter information.”

We will join #StopHate4Profit and stop posting on @Facebook for the month of July. We are taking this action to protest the platform’s irresponsible propagation of hate speech, racism, and misleading voter information. We encourage clients and our own people to join us.

— Goodby Silverstein (@GSP) June 24, 2020

Meanwhile, other companies like Starbucks and Coca-Cola have said their boycotts will apply to all social media platforms. 

Pepsi and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Recent criticism of Facebook came when President Trump said on social media as the protests broke out over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Twitter decided to label the president’s tweet with a warning that it was “glorifying violence” hours after it was posted. 

Facebook makes about $1 billion per quarter on advertising, and the social media platform’s stock fell more than 8 percent on Friday as more companies joined the boycott, according to Fox Business.