GB News
(Picture: PA Media)Attempts by activist groups to pressure companies to stop advertisements on GB News are making people more likely to watch the channel, a poll has found.
A survey of 1,000 people found that 29 per cent were more likely to watch GB News following the boycott, compared to 14 per cent who said they were less likely to tune in.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Conservative MP for Bassetlaw, said the poll revealed that “the vast majority of normal people out there just want businesses to focus on selling them the right products at the right prices”.
A series of firms, including Nivea, Kopparberg and Ikea, withdrew or suspended advertising campaigns on GB News following pressure from activist groups such as Stop Funding Hate and Led by Donkeys.
Led by Donkeys, which campaigned against Brexit, funded billboard posters calling out companies such as Sainsbury’s, Halfords and Kellogg’s for advertising on the channel.
A poll by CT Group, commissioned by GB News, found that 57 per cent of people believe that consumer goods companies should not take public political stances.
This is compared to 15 per cent who disagreed.
More than one in three (36 per cent) of those surveyed say they would feel less favourable towards companies that cancel advertisements under "politically-motivated social media pressure".
Twenty-two per cent of respondents said they would think more favourably of such companies.
Mr Clarke-Smith said: “These findings show the risk businesses are taking when they allow their marketing strategies to be dictated by those engaged in cancel culture.
"As always, these online mobs create noise, which is given traction by the mainstream media, but the vast majority of normal people out there just want businesses to focus on selling them the right products at the right prices.
"If Sainsbury’s wants to pander to the mob, enter the political arena and bend to the will of politically motivated campaigns, people will start changing where they shop. I don’t want my supermarket to have political views - I want it to sell me good food at competitive prices.”
