This morning B&T, among a number of other trade and consumer publications, reported that Suncorp Bank would cancel all advertising with The Australian in the wake of the Bill Leak racist cartoon controversy. However B&T had a chat with a spokesperson from the bank, who clarified that not all of its advertising would be pulled.
The spokesperson said: “Suncorp would like to clarify that it is not removing its advertising from The Australian.
“Last Friday, Suncorp took a decision to move the placement of an online advertisement following a large volume of inquiries from both sides in relation to a cartoon.
“We apologise for any confusion following our response on social media.”
On Twitter, Suncorp earlier had assured followers it “definitely [does] not support the cartoon” and was looking into the matter.
Subsequent tweets gave the impression the bank would be removing its advertising from The Oz’s website, stating, “We are now working with our media placement agencies to remove our advertising from this content”.
Another tweet read:
@BlayneTreadgold We have removed our advertising from the content, and have temporarily suspended any future placements. 1/2
— Suncorp Bank (@suncorpbank) August 5, 2016
The Adelaide Festival also announced it would be considering its advertising with the newspaper, saying, it “does not endorse the sentiments of Bill Leak’s cartoon” and “will be seriously reviewing our advertising commitments internally”.
But Twitterers still are hoping the bank will pull all of its ads, as originally thought:
@suncorpbank @BlayneTreadgold please consider withdrawing advertising totally from @australian until they fire Bill Leak.
— (((bleak))) (@__bleak__) August 5, 2016
@suncorpbank @BlayneTreadgold Respect the stance. I hope temporarily doesn’t mean the next couple of weeks.
— Rajhev Rajkumar (@rajhev) August 8, 2016
The offensive cartoon depicted an image of poor parenting of Indigenous children, while a follow-up cartoon went on to mock the outrage Leak’s original cartoon caused.
The Oz defended the piece as well, saying it was “proud of its long-standing and detailed contribution to our national debate over the crucial issues in Indigenous affairs”.
