Hanesbrands has ended its advertising campaign featuring Charlie Sheen because of domestic violence charges filed against the actor, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
Spokesman Matt Hall said the seriousness of the allegations against the 44-year-old actor made the decision necessary.
“It’s a pretty standard, straightforward call when somebody who’s in your commercials is arrested on suspicion of something of this magnitude,” Hall said. “And we would suspend the ads both for the company and, really, for Mr. Sheen and his family as well. Given the publicity, it makes sense to not air those ads during that time.”
Hall said the television ads were stopped effective Dec. 28, the first business day after Sheen was arrested. He said some print ads will continue to appear into the spring.
“Unfortunately, the production schedule of those publications do not allow us to pull those ads,” Hall said.
The “Two and a Half Men” star was arrested in Aspen, Colo., on Christmas Day on charges including felony menacing and domestic violence. His wife Brooke Sheen told police he put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Sheen denies the allegations.
His publicist Stan Rosenfield says the actor has no comment on the Hanes decision. Hanes is based in Winston-Salem.
Hall says Sheen wouldn’t have been retained when his contract expired in the middle of the year. He says Sheen has been a pitchman for almost two years. Hall also said there would be minimal impact from pulling the ads.
“We have other commercials. We have commercials for our socks, and so we’ll probably push those commercials some more,” he said. “We really don’t view the first half of the year as a marketing-critical time for the advertiser, so we don’t think there’s any detriment to the brand by not having the opportunity to run these ads if we wanted to.”
The ads feature Sheen and basketball legend Michael Jordan, a longtime spokesman for Hanes. In the series, Sheen is seen in several settings telling Jordan about the Hanes underwear he’s wearing. Jordan drives away from Sheen in one of the ads; in another spot, Sheen backs his car over a bellstand and an outdoor heater after seeing Jordan in a parking lot.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads โ essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More