SEVERAL BRANDS HAVE pulled advertising from GB News, the 24-hour news channel promising to take on so-called cancel culture in the UK. 

The channel, which launched on Sunday, promises to “have different views” with its chairman Andrew Neil saying that the station will be “proud to be British”.

When the channel was being put together, it was reported that the slant of GB News was going to be unashamedly pro-British, pro-Brexit and right-leaning. This led to it being compared to a British version of Fox News.

The campaign group Stop Funding Hate has been lobbying brands not to fund GB News since February due to its right-leaning agenda.

Ikea, Vodafone, Kopparberg, and beer company Grolsch are among those who have featured in the network’s ad breaks to pull future advertising from GB News. 

“We want to make it clear to everyone that our ad ran on this channel without our knowledge or consent. Kopparberg is a drink for everyone and we have immediately suspended our ads from this channel pending further review of its content,” tweeted Kopparberg.

Likewise, both Ikea and Vodafone UK said their advertising had been placed on the network without permission.  

“We proactively manage the placement of our advertising in appropriate & safe environments. For new publications, we wait a few months before deciding to advertise with them. In this instance our advertising has been placed without our permission. We’re addressing this,” the company tweeted.

Furniture giant Ikea said it has not knowingly advertised on GB News: “We have safeguards in place to prevent our advertising from appearing on platforms that are not in line with our humanistic values and vision to side with the many people.

“We are in the process of investigating how this may have occurred to ensure it won’t happen again in future, and have suspended paid display advertising in the meantime. 

Octopus Energy shared a statement insisting it would only continue to advertise with GB News if they could prove their impartiality.

As promised...
This is the letter I've sent to customers who emailed.
Summary: Ad slots were not planned by us. We'll monitor any new channels (including this) before running ads and will only advertise if balanced and meets our policies. pic.twitter.com/YInlVubN52

— Greg Jackson (@g__j) June 15, 2021

The station, which has a staff of 140 journalists based at newly acquired offices in west London, has attracted a string of high-profile UK broadcasters.

Chief among them is veteran journalist Andrew Neil. Other UK journalists who had the move to GB News include former BBC newsreader Simon McCoy, former Sky newsreader Colin Brazier, former Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher, ex-Sun journalist Dan Wootton and former Apprentice winner and tv panellist Michelle Dewberry.

- With reporting from Rónán Duffy