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Staples Pulls Ads from ‘Imus in the Morning’

Skittish about appearing during Imus in the Morning after host Don Imus’s on-air racial slur about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, advertisers have pulled their ads.

Don Imus, who referred to the basketball team’s members as “nappy-headed ho’s” on his April 4 show, has apologized profusely; still, that has not been enough to satisfy companies such as Staples, which has stopped advertising on the program, reports Reuters.

Bigelow Tea has also said that it is reviewing its advertising commitments, and Dennis McGuire, vp and regional broadcast director for Carat USA said clients have asked to pull their advertising from the show.

Yesterday, the Rutgers women’s basketball team held a press conference that was broadcast live on ESPN and Yahoo, MediaPost writes. During the conference, athletic director Robert Mulcahy III said the remarks had “assassinated the character” of the players. The article points out how dangerous it can be to run afoul of a major university sports brand. College sports programs earned a total $4.2 billion in revenue in 2005-2006, and women’s college basketball is growing, with revenues of $77 million in 2005-2006.