Two advertisers have suspended their sponsorship of Samantha Bee's Full Frontal, in light of its star's Ivanka Trump controversy. In a statement released yesterday, e-commerce site Autotrader announced that it would be suspending sponsorship of the show on Twitter. Insurance company State Farm has since followed suit, becoming the second advertiser to suspend advertising on the satirical news series.
In both statements, Autotrader and State Farm say they are suspending sponsorship, which hints they may not be ending their sponsorships permanently. Autotrader made its advertising announcement on its Twitter account, an hour before Samantha Bee took to Twitter to apologize to Ivanka Trump and Full Frontal viewers for using the C-word to refer to Trump. Also issuing an apology has been TBS -- the network Bee's show airs on.
In its statement, State Farm said they are always reviewing programs to make sure they meet with "programming guidelines," as well as the company's "brand values," per Deadline. Full Frontal is filmed in advance, and the series' dialogues are scripted meaning Samantha Bee's use of the expletive occurred in a pre-taped broadcast that was aired later. In its tweet, apologizing for the language used by Bee, TBS shouldered the blame.
Full Frontal airs weekly on Wednesdays, meaning Samantha Bee has yet to address or not address the controversy on an episode of the show it began on. Suffice it to say; viewers will have to wait and see if Bee makes mention of the media storm on next week's episode. For the time being, Bee has commented on the controversy on social media.
Samantha Bee also addressed it in her acceptance speech at the TV Academy's Honors ceremony. Bee was one of the honorees, taking home the award for Programming that Advanced Social Change. That event was held on Thursday, the day after the episode aired. So far, Ivanka Trump has not personally weighed in on the controversy involving Bee.
Time will tell what the impact of losing the two advertisers will have on Full Frontal. It will also determine if the companies' withdrawals will be permanent and if other advertisers will join the exodus. Despite the controversy, there is no word that it will affect production on the Emmy-award winning series. Full Frontal is expected to air at its usual time, which is Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on TBS.
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