Racked has an exclusive interview with Sleeping Giants, an anonymous group of activists who have been successfully encouraging brands to stop advertising on Breitbart, the conservative publication favored by the alt-right white supremacists.
The group, which is believed to be made up of digital marketing professionals, says its mission is to dismantle the profit channels of racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic – not to mention fake – news sites.
As it turns out, many of the brands contacted by the group were unaware of their presence on the site, thanks to the role of third-party media agencies and automated algorithms, as was the case with Warby Parker, Lulu Lemon, and The Honest Company, whose values are in direct conflict with Breitbart’s. Thus far, the campaign has led 1400 companies to bar their products from appearing on the site, including Nordstrom, Etsy, Henri Bendel, Uniqlo, Sephora, and Zappos.
Still, the campaign has a long way to go as some of the biggest retailers like Amazon have yet to budge, despite a petition with over 500,000 signatures.
Critics of Sleeping Giants’ campaign are calling it an attack on free speech; however, Sleeping Giants say it’s about quelling hate, and not politically driven. “It’s an anti-bigotry campaign, pure and simple.”
You can read the full interview at Racked.
