Suncorp Bank will not withdraw advertising from The Australian, despite reports it would pull ads following the publication of a controversial ‘racist’ cartoon last week.
A social post from Suncorp led news outlets such as The Guardian, Crikey and various trade publications to report the bank was removing all ads from The Australian.
However Suncorp tells AdNews this is inaccurate. It will continue to advertise with the Australian and it only moved one online advertisement so it did not appear on the same page as the cartoon.
“Suncorp would like to clarify that it is not removing its advertising from The Australian,” a spokesperson told AdNews.
“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.”
The Bill Leak cartoon showed a policeman bringing back an indigenous juvenile to his father. The text read: “You’ll have to sit down and talk to your son about personal responsibility”.
The father responds: “Yeah righto, what’s his name then?”
The cartoon faced consumer backlash on social media and multiple complaints to the Press Council. The Press Council is said to be investigating the complaints.
One person wrote on Twitter to Suncorp: “Why do you advertise with The Australian and pay to associate yourself with bigotry?”
Suncorp responded saying it “definitely [does] not support the cartoon in yesterday’s issue”.
The bank also wrote: “We are now working with our media placement agencies to remove our advertising from this content.”
AdNews approached News Corp for comment.
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