Duck Dynasty is Back and So are the Advertisers- Who are they?
Among frequent advertisers in "Duck Dynasty" last year, Home Depot, Geico, Darden Restaurants, Subway, Hershey andAT&T were back with national or local ads in the fifth-season premiere last night.
Ratings took a hit, however, with the fifth season bowing to 8.5 million total viewers, down from the nearly 12 million people that tuned in for the fourth season premiere last summer. The showing was also a decrease from the "Duck Dynasty" Christmas special, which was watched by nearly 9 million people, but does come in slightly ahead of the fourth season finale. The third season premiered last winter to 8.6 million viewers.
he reaction has been anything but unified. A&E responded by saying it was "extremely disappointed" and briefly suspended Mr. Roberston from the series. The comments set off a firestorm from gay rights groups and plenty of others, but A&E's suspension generated questions of freedom of speech from religious organizations. One company, Cracker Barrel, removed "Duck Dynasty"-related merchandise from shelves, then reversed itself and apologized.
"When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers," it explained in a letter. "Our intent was to avoid offending, but that's just what we've done."
A&E said it had reinstated Mr. Robertson because "Duck Dynasty" is about more than one man. It also said it planned to run public service announcements that would promote "unity, tolerance and acceptance."
While recent "Duck Dynasty" advertisers were comfortable returning to the show, they aren't eager to give the controversy any more oxygen, either declining to comment for this article or not responding to requests for comment.
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