No One Wants to Advertise With the Clippers Anymore

Now that people know about Donald Sterling’s real feelings towards black people, advertisers have began to pull out in protest. A lot of them. BuzzFeed has a rundown on most of the companies who are suspending all marketing with the Clippers while Sterling is being investigated. While Corona will not be halting their relationship, these other guys will.

Red Bull: We trust and respect the NBA’s process to formally investigate the matter, and in the interim, are suspending all team-related marketing activities. We will continue to support our Red Bull athlete, Blake Griffin, his teammates and coaching staff in their pursuit of an NBA title.

CarMax: CarMax finds the statements attributed to the Clippers’ owner completely unacceptable. These views directly conflict with CarMax’s culture of respect for all individuals. While we have been a proud Clippers sponsor for 9 years and support the team, fans and community, these statements necessitate that CarMax end its sponsorship.

AQUAhydrate: In the wake of Donald Sterling’s alleged defamatory and intolerable comments we have decided to suspend our sponsorship with the LA Clippers until the NBA completes its investigation. We fully support the players and fans of the LA Clippers and wish them the best in the remainder of the playoffs.

Sprint: “We deplore the reprehensible comments expressed in the audiotape.”

State Farm: The remarks attributed to the Clippers’ owner are offensive. While those involved sort out the facts, we will be taking a pause in our relationship with the organization. We are monitoring the situation and we’ll continually assess our options. We have a great relationship with Chris Paul and will continue supporting the Born to Assist advertising campaign involving Chris and now other NBA players.

LoanMart: The statements allegedly made by Donald Sterling are completely inconsistent with the views and ethics of the LoanMart organization. As a result, LoanMart is suspending our advertising and sponsorship activities for the Los Angeles Clippers for the time being and will continue to monitor the situation for further developments. We want to emphasize our continued support for the Clippers players, coaching staff and fans during this difficult time.

Amtrak (currently making a decision on future sponsorships): Amtrak believes the language used is unacceptable and is inconsistent with our corporate belief to treat everyone with integrity and dignity. Our sponsorship with the LA Clippers expired at the end of the regular season a few weeks ago. As with any sponsorship advertising, some assets remain in market – to that end we are diligently working to remove all sponsorship assets. Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the situation as we look to make decisions about 2014-15 sports marketing sponsorships.

Lumber Liquidators: In light of the racist comments allegedly made by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Lumber Liquidators is suspending all planned advertising for the team’s 2014-2015 season until further notice.

Anheuser-Busch (not Clippers sponsors but the league’s official sponsor): As the Official Beer of the NBA, we are disappointed to hear the alleged recent comments attributed to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. While Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light are not team sponsors of the L.A. Clippers, we fully support the NBA’s efforts to investigate quickly and trust that they will take appropriate action.

Yokohama Tire Corporation: Yokohama Tire Corporation does not tolerate discrimination in any fashion. The alleged remarks by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling are completely unacceptable and we find it necessary to immediately suspend our sponsorship of the organization as a result. We will continue to assess the situation and weigh our options. Meanwhile, we wish to express our continued support to the Clippers players and fans.

Also Virgin America and Kia.

The only way this is going to end is if Sterling rides this out until people forget and sponsors come back, which may take a while, or he’s removed as owner. It’s pretty much going to be based on who loses their money the fastest. In which case, I give Sterling the upper hand. He’s old and old people are good at waiting because they know they’re going to die soon anyway.