Patronizing big business lectures morality to Breitbart
Patronizing big business lectures morality to Breitbart

Kellogg, the cereal giant, has announced that it will no longer advertise on the Breitbart site, the site whose CEO Stephen Bannon will enter the White House as advisor to President-elect Donald Trump. “We work with our partners to ensure that our ads are not displayed on web sites not aligned with our values,” said Kris Charles, Kellogg’s spokeswoman pompously.

The moralizing market is a delusion, but a delusion that works.
Kellogg is not the first major brand to withdraw advertising from Breitbart in the name of “values”. The list includes Allstate, the provider EarthLink, Warby Parker eyeglasses and SoFi. During the past three years, big business has been ideologically busy in spreading this campaign. It started with the former CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, who resigned from his company over their check for a thousand dollars to support a California referendum against gay marriage.

The moralizing market is a delusion, but a delusion that works. Barilla, Italian pasta leading company, once guilty of siding in favor of marriage between a man and a woman, hired “America’s most famous gay,” David Mixner, to re-educate employees and consumers. A few days ago, Lego, the children's bricks giant, has announced it will not do more publicity in the British newspaper Daily Mail. “We have decided to discontinue any promotional activity in the newspaper”, announced Lego, which two years ago had closed its connections with Shell, whose symbol was drawn on Lego’s gasoline pumps, to protest against Arctic drilling.

The Mayor of London, the Muslim Sadiq Khan, has banned advertising of girls in bikinis on public transport, because it would provide “a distorted image of the female body?” “Is London ready for sharia?,” the mayor was asked on Twitter. Backstage Capital has rejected a potential venture because of ties with Peter Thiel, the founder of PaylPal and a supporter of Trump. Tumblr, the social network, also severed ties with Thiel. There was the case of Orange, the French telephone company which left the Israeli market after its number one, Stephane Richard, from Cairo, had reassured the Arab-Islamic investors.

When will Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia ask their companies to stop advertising in the newspapers that do not conform to the pro Islam mantra? Ask the delicious Danish Lurpak butter, which lost two million dollars a day when it disappeared from the shelves of supermarkets located in the Arab crescent. The dairy industry had lectured on ethics and freedom of expression for cartoonists.