"Enjoy the Bud Light treatment": Burger King comes under fire, faces boycott over Russell Brand Rumble ad controversy

Russell Brand has recently been accused of a myriad of allegations including r*pe, s*xual assault, and emotional abuse from several women in incidents occurring between 2006 and 2013. It was a joint expose by The Sunday Times, The Times, Channel 4, and in Dispatches' documentary called Russell Brand: In Plain Sight which was released on September 18, 2023.

The actor faces a potential decline in business as Burger King, Asos, the Barbican, and HelloFresh have removed their ads with the actor as of September 22. YouTube demonetized the comedian's account on Tuesday after allegations broke out, as per Sky News.

However, the online video platform, Rumble, with a majority of right-winged users, has chosen to keep playing and monetizing Russell's content on their interface.

Meanwhile, Russell fans and conservatives are upset with Burger King and the other brands who are, in their words, not advocating free speech.

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Russell Brand's ads are getting pulled out after controversy

After the r*pe, s*xual assault, and emotional abuse accusations against Russell, several companies, including Burger King, have pulled their ads with him from all social media platforms. Brand has stood by his innocence throughout.

Russell Brand, the English comedian and activist has also lost monetization on his YouTube videos, which earned him £1m last year, as per The Guardian.

The comedian earns around £27,000 per month on Rumble, a platform similar to YouTube. It is self-described as an online video platform, web hosting, and cloud services business with headquarters in Toronto.

On September 21, 2023, Rumble's chief executive, Chris Pavlovski, received a letter from Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chair of the culture, media, and sport committee. She expressed that the artist "may be able to profit from his content on the platform."

Rumble called the letter "deeply inappropriate" and maintained that their platform is a "brand where no one arbitrarily dictates which ideas can or cannot be heard, or which citizens may or may not be entitled to a platform," as per BBC. The company added:

"Singling out an individual and demanding his ban is even more disturbing given the absence of any connection between the allegations and his content on Rumble."

The Canadian brand was founded in 2013 by technology entrepreneur, Chris Pavlovski.

After Burger King, Asos, the Barbican, and HelloFresh pulled out their ads about Russell Brand, many Republicans are outraged by the lack of "free speech," between social media platforms including YouTube.

Some of the netizen reactions are given below.

Rumble is known to be an "open platform" where content creators and influencers are welcome to “speak their truth.” The platform's website said that it aims to "restore the internet to its roots by making it free and open once again.”

Political commentator Ben Shapiro, and former US President Donald Trump have also moved to that platform. According to The Guardian, the social platform has around 78 million active users globally.

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Russell Brand's response to the allegations

The accusations against Russell were sent to him in two letters from the joint investigation previously mentioned. The activist said on his Instagram video posted on September 16, 2023, that he "absolutely" refuted all the allegations made against him. He talked about the time between 2006 to 2013, saying:

"These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies and, as I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous."

He added that though he was promiscuous, his relationships were "absolutely, always consensual."

Russell Brand is still under public scrutiny but has continued to advocate his views about censorship and cancel culture on various platforms, especially Rumble.