UBC, McGill, U of Montreal pull advertisements from Breitbart News

The University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of Montreal have pulled their advertisements from the ultra-conservative news website Breitbart, the media outlet that came under fire during the 2016 presidential election.

On Thursday, UBC announced in a tweet that it had had pulled an ad promoting its new swimming pool from Breitbart News, which was once led by a top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump's adviser Steve Bannon has described the site as a champion for the so-called alt-right, a U.S.-based offshoot of conservatism that critics allege promotes racist, sexist and homophobic sentiment.

A campaigner at SumOfUs.org — an international group that says it targets "the growing power of corporations" — raised concerns Thursday about the ad on Twitter, asking the university to take it down.

UBC spokeswoman Susan Danard said the ad was pulled shortly after it went up and concerns were raised on social media. 

Danard said the school's marketing policy normally excludes extreme political sites, but in this case the advertising agency had inadvertently included Breitbart in a group of websites running the pool promotion.

'We have spoken to the ad agency'

"It's regrettable," said Danard. "We have spoken to the ad agency. We are concerned about being respectful and tolerant."

She pointed out the ad was not part of any recruitment campaign or a major ad campaign and was simply a small promotion run by the athletics department aimed at promoting the new pool.

UBC isn't the first organization to be pressured to pull its ad from the Breitbart website.

On Thursday SumOfUs has also released a statement calling on McGill and the University of Montreal to pull their ads from the Breitbart website.

By Friday morning, both universities appeared to have done just that.

"We've adjusted our advertising campaign — our ads should no longer appear on Breitbart site," McGill tweeted in response to the complaint.

The University of Montreal also issued a statement on Friday morning saying its ads had already been pulled down.

"We learned that our advertising was posted to this site two weeks ago when a reporter from LaPresse informed us. We immediately pulled the advertising, and we have taken precautions to no longer appear on this site or on similar sites."

More companies under pressure

The campaign to pressure companies and organizations in Canada and the U.S. to pull down the ads has been spearheaded by SumOfUs strategist Emma Pullman, who says the aim is to deprive Breitbart News of advertising revenue.

"Breitbart is a right-wing website that promotes hateful, racist, xenophobic rhetoric, and it's our belief that that brand of bigotry is bad for business," said Pullman from Vancouver on Friday.

She said organizations and companies have a responsibility to understand all the places their name might appear.

Many online ad agencies use technology that enables ads to be geographically targeted at readers on a wide range of websites, based on information pulled from their internet browsing activity.

On Friday morning, ads from several B.C. business were appearing on the website for Vancouver readers, including the Lower Mainland dealerships of a major car maker and a luxury condo development in West Vancouver.

At least some of the ads on Breitbart appear to be coming from the popular Google Ads software embedded on the webpage.

"While it is fair to say that companies and organizations might not be aware that they are advertising with Breitbart, I don't think it gets them off the hook," she said. "Companies have a responsibility to know where their name is appearing."

Since the campaign launched before Christmas over 750 companies have pulled ads from the website, including MEC, Swiss Chalet, Laval University and Desjardins Bank, she said.

U.S. companies that have pulled ads from the website include retailer Target, insurer Allstate, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, glasses retailer Warby Parker and the San Diego Zoo, according to The Associated Press.

When Kelloggs pulled its ads, Breitbart struck back by calling on its supporters to boycott the cereal maker.