The self-proclaimed people’s channel GB News’ Manchester-based ad operation has lost another client in a Twitter-storm involving people’s champion Laurence Fox, London-based independent coffee house Grind Coffee and, err, GB News.
The London-based coffee supplier has what could be described as a planet-safe approach to life, claiming that its products are “Completely home-compostable and plastic-free.” It’s a coffee company that tries to be nice, in an industry that historically isn’t actually very nice, to people or the planet.
That all seems reasonable enough, but the company had purchased an ad package with an unnamed agency, which included ads on the right-leaning channel GB News.
Grind did not know that the package included GB News, and says the GB News ads were “inadvertent.” When Grind learned that its ads were running on the right-leaning channel, it pulled its advertising.
It didn’t take Fox long to respond, suggesting a boycott from his many followers.
The tweet naturally attracted many responses from supporters of Fox, but a fairly equal number of opposing ones:
Grind issued a statement via CEO David Abrahamovitch on Friday, July 14:
“It’s unsettling for any business that finds themselves at the centre of a Twitter-storm like this, however we stand by our decision to pull further ad spend from GB News. Sustainability is a core brand-pillar at Grind and it’s simply not the right fit for Grind to partner with a channel that provides a platform for those who cast doubt on climate science. It was a real relief to see that our decision led to tremendous support from new and existing customers alike.”
Fox himself is a gentleman who is not only a climate-change denier, but has also filmed himself burning an LGBTQ+ flag in his garden before sending the video to the Daily Mail.
Last thing we heard he was planning to stand for election in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, presumably on the basis they haven’t had enough sketchy lunatics representing them lately.
Thankfully, Prolific North does not need to editorialise any of that as Grind have done the job for us (though we’re still mildly concerned for them as their name is one typo away from Grindr):
