Laura Ingraham Loses Sponsor After Guest Says Beto O’Rourke Is ‘Light in the Loafers’

“We strongly denounce intolerance of any kind and therefore you won’t find our ads on this program,” men’s wellness company Hims says

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Laura Ingraham was down another advertiser Tuesday night after the men’s wellness line Hims announced they would be dropping the show. The move came a day after Ingraham’s guest Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick mocked 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke as “light in the loafers.”

“Hims was founded to break down barriers for all people when it comes to obtaining quality healthcare. As a brand for everyone, we strongly denounce intolerance of any kind and therefore you won’t find our ads on this program going forward,” the company said in a brief statement on Twitter Tuesday.

“We will not allow voices like Laura Ingraham’s to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the intolerant partisan activists Media Matters, Sleeping Giants and Moveon.org whose only goal is to silence conservative thought they don’t agree with. The remark was made by a guest and clarified within the same segment,” a rep for Fox News offered in response.

Ingraham’s advertisers have faced pressure from Twitter activists at Media Matters for America, Sleeping Giants and elsewhere after the Fox News host’s discussion with Patrick in which he used the expression commonly understood as a slur against LGBT people.

“Was he always this left wing?” Ingraham asked of O’Rourke during the Monday night show.

“He is so light in the loafers, he floats off the ground at times,” Patrick said as Ingraham shook her head.

The bad sponsor news didn’t just extend to Laura Ingraham. Also on Tuesday, the language learning company Babbel apologized to consumers after one of their ads was spotted on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” The company said the ad had been placed with the program by mistake and that it would not happen again.

“If you saw our ad on Tucker Carlson’s show, you’re right to be upset. We are too. While we did place our ad with Fox, we did not know it would air on a show so repugnant and at odds with our mission and values. We are blacklisting the show going forward. We are deeply sorry,” they said.

In a statement in response to Babbel, Fox News took aim directly at the company, warning they would pay a price with the network’s “deeply loyal” audience.

“The millions of unduplicated viewers watching Tucker Carlson Tonight are extremely valuable to our advertisers. Our audience is not only deeply loyal to the brand, but to our top tier partners as well, of which Babbel is not one,” a rep for the network told TheWrap. “We will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson’s to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the intolerant partisan activists Media Matters, Sleeping Giants and Moveon.org whose only goal is to silence conservative thought they don’t agree with.”

The Hims departure comes as Ingraham’s show was steadily climbing out from a year-long advertiser boycott first initiated by Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. As TheWrap previously reported, ratings for the show have actually improved during the boycott while ad time had steadily been approaching pre-boycott levels throughout 2019.

In April, Google made a big bet on the company running dozens of ads for itself and YouTube on Ingraham’s program. The company did not respond to requests for comment at the time or over the latest “light in the loafers” imbroglio.

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