Reddit, despite its size, has had difficulty monetizing through advertising. One reason is that user anonymity prevents the kind of data collection that enables advertisers to narrowly target their desired audience the way they can on sites like Facebook. Another is that its user base is notoriously averse to ads; to thank users who are not using AdBlock, Reddit actually uses many of its ad spaces to serve up cute pictures. Occasionally on the front page one will see actual ads in the sidebar; usually, though, one sees ads for other subreddits or the “Thank You” pictures instead. Ads are more commonly served in a “Sponsored Link” box at the top of the front page, /r/all, and the default subreddits.

Another reason is that Reddit has earned itself a bad reputation by hosting socially corrosive and even criminal content along with all of its cute cat gifs and “dank” memes, and so very few major advertisers have been willing to touch it until relatively recently.

All this is to say that we know that Reddit isn’t, at this point, literally supported by ad revenue; it is apparently living off of the funds it raised in a round of investing last year in addition to the revenue it receives from ads and gold, which appears to be a shockingly small amount of money for a website of this size.

The purpose of this campaign is to prevent Reddit from fooling people into thinking it has truly changed, and to show the world that web properties that support bigotry and other ills will not be profitable. Make no mistake: Reddit is not taking a tougher stand on racism and harassment or even on nonconsensual pornography; it is attempting to sweep these things under the rug (and doing a bad job of it) in order to look better as it attempts to monetize. Those who currently advertise with Reddit provide more legitimacy than revenue; they help Reddit say to its investors, “See? Companies will advertise here. We’ll eventually be able to pay you back with this large community, we promise!” The problem is, when mainstream advertisers support Reddit, they support the content that Reddit hosts, from the adorable to the deplorable.

Our job is to tell Reddit’s advertisers that we will not stand for them giving any kind of aid to a website that explicitly supports bigotry, and to show Reddit and its investors that they will continue to face an uphill battle toward profitability if they refuse to adopt a policy banning hate speech.



If you haven’t already, sign our latest petition (more than 50,000 signatures strong) here:

Now, without further ado, here is Reddit’s current list of advertisers. This list will be updated as necessary, since new ones pop up all the time. Click on an advertiser’s name to send a tweet letting them know that you don’t support hate and they shouldn’t either.

Netflix | Penguin Books | New Belgium Brewing Company | Adult Swim (TBS/Time-Warner Inc.) | Sling TV (Dish Network) | Dover Publications | Jansport | Focus Features | DraftKings | CuriosityStream | Leesa Mattresses | Lovecrave | PocketDerm | Opternative | Supra Footwear | HomeChef | BookSniper | Kontron.com | Librato | VaporGenie | Stanford Center for Professional Development | Touro University Worldwide | Coupons.com | Shudder.com | Playster | HelloParent.co | Petbrosia | Original Stitch | Bungie Games | Activision |