Coffee maker smashings end, but Keurig’s ad plans a mystery
NEW YORK — While Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity called on his supporters to stop smashing Keurig coffee makers to protest a decision to stop advertising on his show, it remains unclear whether Keurig will actually return as a sponsor.
Hannity and a liberal lobbying group’s effort to choke off his advertising are clearly making some corporations uncomfortable and loathe to be involved in a proxy political battle.
After Keurig announced via Twitter that it would abandon Hannity’s show because of how he reported on stories about Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, some of the Fox host’s supporters began posting videos online smashing, blowing up or tossing coffee makers off a deck. Hannity called the action “hysterical” and showed some of the videos on his show.
Then he read from a letter that Bob Gamgort, Keurig’s chief executive officer, wrote to his employees saying it was wrong to talk about advertising strategies publicly “outside of company protocols.”