DDB-Chicago made an ad for State Farm featuring actor Rob Schneider. Objections were made to an anti-vaccine celebrity being used to promote a company selling health insurance. Monday, September 22, 2014 State Farm took the ad "out of rotation"
Announcements and Responses to State Farm's Decision to Drop Schneider Ad (excluding Facebook)
- September 22, 2014, State Farm drops ad starring Rob Schneider over anti-vaccine views by Diana Bradley at PR Week
Phil Supple, State Farm’s director of public affairs, told PRWeek that the company’s advertising is intended to inform and entertain, but Schneider’s ad had the opposite effect.
"[Schneider’s] ad has unintentionally been used as a platform for discussion unrelated to the products and services we provide," he said. "With that, we are working to remove the ad from our rotation at this time."
- September 22, 2014, State Farm drops ad with anti-vaxxer Rob Schneider after social media outrage by Scott Kaufman at Raw Story
A video supporting the removal of Schneider from all State Farm advertisements began to circulate online as well. The video claims that “State Farm provides health insurance, and nothing ensures public health more than getting vaccinated.”
- September 22, 2014, Rob Schneider dropped from State Farm ads for anti-vaccination beliefs by Sean O'Neal at AV Club
Unfortunately for State Farm—a company that promotes immunization awareness as a means of preventing the spread of viral diseases that it definitely doesn’t want to pay for—Schneider has a long public history of anti-vaccination statements. For instance, the time he protested a California state bill that would have required parents to be informed of the risks before taking a philosophical exemption to vaccinations, with Schneider comparing them to both the Nuremberg Laws and the forced sterilization of the mentally retarded. Rob Schneider, the Robmeister, makin’ shitty analogies. Godwin’s Law-a-rama! Rob!
- September 23, 2014 Rob Schneider: Makin’ Enemies, by Ray Lehmann at Right Street Blog (Insurance Journal)
All of which is to say that, while Mr. Schneider’s beliefs on the subject of childhood vaccination might be typical among parents in his neighborhood, that doesn’t make him a “good neighbor.” Insurance companies are in the business of managing and mitigating risk. That should render associating with a high-profile disseminator of false information that could do catastrophic harm to public health off the table.
- September 23, 2014 September is “Toxic Celebrity Endorsement Awareness Month” at State Farm Insurance! by Ken Reibel at Autism News Beat
Take the recent example of Rob Schneider, a D-list actor and 90s SNL cast member, who recently landed a sweet endorsement gig with State Farm Insurance. Well, not anymore. Schneider is also an outspoken anti-vaccine zealot, and was dropped by the insurance giant only days following a social media campaign by public health advocates.
- September 23, 2014, Rob Schneider ad axed by State Farm because he’s an anti-vaxxer by Joe Veix at DeathandTaxes
The reason? He’s very publicly an anti-vaxxer, which is absolutely wrong and stupid and endangers the lives of others. Various social media sites that actively fight against the proliferation of pseudo-science—FundHunk, Science Babe, and Chow Babe—ran a campaign urging the insurance company to sever its ties to the actor, pointing out the irony of an insurance company hiring a celebrity spokesperson who campaigns against vaccinations. Amazingly, State Farm listened. It’s a victory for science, and for those who don’t want to watch annoying commercials.
- September 23, 2014 Rob Schneider TV Ad Dropped by State Farm Over Comedian's Anti-Vaccine Views by Ryan O'Connell at The Wrap
State Farm Insurance will no longer run a television advertisement starring Rob Schneider because of the actor's anti-vaccination views. The move comes after a social media campaign called for Schneider to be dropped as a spokesperson.
- September 24, 2014, State Farm Pulls Rob Schneider Ad over His Anti-Vaccine Views by by Andrew Kirell at Mediaite
State Farm has yanked its ads featuring actor Rob Schneider following social media outcry over his views that childhood vaccines are linked to autism.
- September 24 2014 Insurance commercial featuring Rob Schneider pulled from TV rotation because of the comedian's opposition to child vaccinations by By Joel Christie for MailOnline
State Farm Insurance has pulled a television ad they created using actor Rob Schneider from the air following a social media outcry over the comedian's controversial opposition to child vaccinations. The Deuce Bigalow star, 50, caused a stir several years ago when he said that childhood vaccines are the likely cause of autism.
- September 24, 2014 Rob Schneider Is Now Claiming That State Farm Has Taken Away His Freedom Of Speech by Andrew Roberts at UpRoxx
Now you can take from that what you want, but the idea that State Farm removing Schneider from their commercials is a free speech issue is bonkers. He’s still allowed to hold his views, speak on the topic, and believe what he wants. State Farm wanted nothing to do with him and decided to part ways, they’re allowed to do that without being painted as evil.
- September 25, 2014 Dear Rob Schneider: Please Shut Up About Vaccines by Jeffery Kluger at Time
It’s actually worth watching the entire jaw-dropping display, because Schneider somehow manages to thread the extraordinary needle of being wrong on every single point he makes. Remember in high school when they used to say it was impossible to score a zero on the SATs because you get a few points just for writing your name? Schneider, presumably, would have left that part blank.
- September 25, 2014 Rob Schneider inoculates himself against criticism with “free speech” placebo by Sean O'Meil at AV Club
Rob! Makin’ fallacies! Mistaking the constitutional protection against government-restricted speech for the right to speak without consequence from a private corporation-a-rooski! False equivalence-arino! Roooobbbbb.
- September 26, 2014 Rob Schneider is paying the price for exercising his free-speech rights, by Jon Healy at LA Times
Would Schneider's critics have remained mum if he were pitching light beer or fast food? Or do they believe that it's their duty to keep him out of the public eye, period? The only way to know is if another advertiser decides to take a chance on Schneider. For better or worse, we live at a time when every public utterance is preserved forever in the amber of the Net. Not only can Schneider not "unring the bell" of his anti-vaccine advocacy, Google and YouTube keep the bell reverberating.
- September 26, 2014 The Food Babe and Rob Schneider: When companies choose poorly
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences due to that speech. In the US, all it means is that the government can’t suppress what we say. It doesn’t mean that private companies have to allow cranks who represent them to say whatever they want. Nor are people exercising their freedom of speech to complain to companies who make bad mistakes in choosing their pitchmen or deciding whom to feature on the cover of their magazine “suppressing” the free speech of cranks, and labeling them as being shills is a painfully transparent ploy to poison the well, as I’ve described many times since I first coined the term “pharma shill gambit” nine years ago. It’s an obvious ad hominem attack designed to poison the well. In the end, unfortunately, cranks like the Food Babe, Rob Schneider, and apparently now the editors of EL like free speech, as long as it’s speech they agree with. Criticism, they don’t like so much.
- September 29, 2014 Rob Schneider, Censorship, Free Speech,...and Measles by ToddW at Harpocrates Speaks
Those who are aware of Rob Schneider's anti-vaccine comments saw this ad as very discordant. On the one hand, State Farm is an insurance company. Among its products is health insurance, including vaccine coverage. It even promoted National Immunization Awareness Month. And then they feature a public, outspoken anti-vaccine activist celebrity in one of their ads. It would be akin to the NAACP hiring Jesse Helms as their spokesperson. Or a psychiatrist airing an ad with Tom Cruise.
Just like with Jenny McCarthy and The View, no one is taking away Rob Schneider's right to say whatever stupid s**t he wants to. Censorship and freedom of speech are things that I take very seriously, and I will vehemently defend Schneider's right to spew whatever nonsense he desires, as long as it does not lead to proximate harm, of course. But in the ad, Schneider was not voicing his opinion or engaging in a free speech act. He was delivering lines as an actor. He was lending his personality and image to advance State Farm. Their policy holders engaged their freedom of speech to voice their opinion about the inappropriateness of tying the State Farm brand to a vocal anti-public health celebrity.
- September 30, 0214, The anti-Rob Schneider crusade: inoculating the public from debate by Neil Ross at Spiked Online. Mr. Ross thought the pro-vaxxers are doing it wrong.
Rather than face the anti-vaccination brigade head-on, with vigorous arguments making a reasoned case for vaccinations, this loud and intolerant mob have demanded Schneider’s image be removed from our TV screens for fear that even a glimpse of him may convince the masses that the US government is trying to poison us all with autism-laced flu jabs. It is this infantilising and patronising outlook that is creating a situation in which debate is painted as something to be feared, and scientifically determined ‘truth’ cannot be questioned.
Announcements and Responses to State Farm's Decision to Drop Schneider Ad: Facebook
- September 23, 2014 Response to State Farm's Actions Relative to Rob Schneider by Chow Babe at Facebook
Before we get into the anti-vaccination movement's response to L'affaire Schneider, let's just review what freedom of speech in the US is, and is not. Here's a handy image.
Image source: http://cbldf.org/the-first-amendment/
Possibly the last, tongue-in-cheek word
Image Source: Refutations to Anti-Vaccine Memes, a Facebook group
Anti-Vaccination Movement Responses to State Farm's Decision to Drop Schneider Ad (excluding Facebook)
- September 23, 2014, State Farm Dumped Rob Schneider for Vaccine Views: Now I’m Dumping State Farm by Brian Shilhavy at Health Impact News
The attacks against Rob Schneider are so very typical of the supporters of the pharmaceutical industry. They don’t want to discuss the real issues, such as the fact that one of the CDC senior scientists in vaccine research has recently come forward as a whistleblower, admitting that he lied and withheld data linking vaccines to autism.
- September 24, 2014 "If the Freedom of Speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter," George Washington" by Rob Schneider on Twitter
There's that pesky "Freedom of Speech" being abridged again! Let's review:
please visit the original - September 24, 2014 Hollywood Actor Targeted for Raising Concerns about Vaccine Safety and Efficacy by Christof Lehmann at nsnbc
Hollywood actor Rob Schneider got first-hand experience about the fact that corporate capitalism is not democracy and that publicly raising concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy issues results in a swift lesson about the fact that freedom of speech is a right that is mitigated by the fact that one’s livelihood and income may be threatened by addressing issues of concern for a multi-billion dollar per year vaccine industry.
Another one who misunderstands the concept "freedom of speech"
- September 24, 2014 State Farm Caves to PC Police; Victim: Rob Schneider by Jennifer Burke at Tea Party News Network (TPNN)
Recently, State Farm Insurance hired Schneider to star in commercials reprising his SNL character “Richmeister” to portray an insurance salesman. The pro-vaccine, anti-free speech police did not like this hire and leaned on State Farm to cut ties with him. As is typical, these PC police types took to social media in their attack campaign against Schneider telling State Farm that since Schneider is critical of vaccines, he should not represent a company that sells health insurance.
- September 25, 2014 Rob Schneider Dropped From State Farm Ads, Guess Why? by Jon Rappoport at InfoWars
Schneider has guts and intelligence. Which of his Hollywood buddies will come to his defense? Don’t hold your breath. I’m sure they’re staying away in droves, protecting their careers. With rare exceptions, showbiz people absolutely must toe the line when it comes to medical matters. Support the establishment. Stump for unconscionable research on toxic treatments.
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