British Airways (BA) has retracted its sponsorship from Louis Theroux’s podcast after speaking with Bob Vylan, the frontman of the contentious hip-hop entity. According to the outlet Deadline, the spokesperson of the Airways clearly stated that the interview “breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters.” He furthermore added, “We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur, and we’re investigating how this happened. Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused, and the advert has been removed.”
Frontman Bobby Vylan, whose real moniker is Pascal Robinson-Foster, said on the podcast previously this month that he was going to reprise his Glastonbury chant of “Death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” and that he did not regret it. He also claimed that he was applauded by BBC staff for the chant, though the BBC did not address the latter’s claim. He states, “I’m not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced. It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through.”
The transmission of Bob Vylan’s set was later deemed to have violated editorial guidelines pertaining to injury and offence by the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit. Additionally, the band had to change the dates of their next We Won’t Go Quietly UK tour in Manchester and Leeds after politicians and Jewish leaders demanded that the performance be postponed.
The duo announced on their Facebook page, “Due to political pressure from the likes of Bridget Phillipson and groups in the Northwest of England, we have had to reschedule our Leeds and Manchester shows. All tickets remain valid, and all other shows are continuing as planned.”
