2024-04-29 05:39:50
Major brands such as Lidl, Coca-Cola and L’Oréal must stop advertising in pro-Kremlin media in the Balkans, European Parliament members instructed the companies in a letter, Politico reported.
The 15 brands should rigorously review their advertising policies to ensure that their spending does not fund, even inadvertently, media known for spreading harmful misinformation, MPs said.
The letter was sent on Thursday by the Bulgarian conservative MEP Andrey Kovachev and 15 other deputies from the center-right party, the Liberals, the Socialists and the Greens.
The companies targeted by the letter are Lidl, Delhaize Group, Procter & Gambler, Coca-Cola, A1, Yettel, Ferrero, Heineken, Mars, Mondelez, L’Oréal, GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK), Bosch, Samsung and Amazon.
Andrei Kovachev explained that anti-democratic narratives by malicious forces are a serious threat to democracy, especially in this key election year for the world.
Disinformation experts are warning of a growing wave of fake news online and foreign attempts to influence the vote ahead of June’s parliamentary elections.
“Many media organizations that spread pro-Kremlin disinformation often use advertising purchased from reputable companies to boost credibility,” Kovachev added. According to him, the companies in question are not always aware that they can support pro-Russian propaganda channels.
In fact, the Brussels-based non-governmental organization – the Balkan Initiative for Free Media – is behind this political move.
The organization reported in 2023 that global brands through agencies and advertising firms were spending hundreds of millions of euros on Serbian and Bulgarian media that spread government propaganda and Kremlin-backed narratives related to the invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s not just about money,” says the letter from the EP. According to the signatory MEPs, brands that have signed contracts with “propaganda media” thereby give them legitimacy and increase the spread and impact of disinformation.
MEPs are asking companies to stand up for “truth and integrity by carefully reallocating advertising budgets from platforms that compromise these core values”.
So far, only Lidl has reacted to the publication – saying that they do not have contractual relations with any pro-Russian media in Bulgaria.