This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sky News has been dealt another blow over its decision to interview the far-right extremist Blair Cottrell. Two more brands have pulled advertising from the network.

Following the decision of American Express to terminate its relationship with the channel on Tuesday, disposable nappy brand Huggies and optical chain Specsavers followed suit on Wednesday, as a campaign by online activist group Sleeping Giants Oz continues.

Craig Emerson quits Sky News over Blair Cottrell interview Read more

“We wanted to follow up with you and let you know that on Monday, we also pulled all advertising from Sky News,” Huggies said in a tweet. “The interview with this guest did not align with our values relating to diversity.”

The company used Twitter on Wednesday to respond to dozens of complaints from people who had called for it to take its advertising dollars elsewhere.

Huggies® (@Huggies) We support the removal of the interview by Sky News. The opinions and beliefs of this guest are completely inconsistent with our core company value of caring and with our work to increase and promote diversity and inclusion in everything we do. 1/2

The British optical group Specsavers told Sleeping Giants Oz on Wednesday it had also pulled its advertising from Sky News.

Sleeping Giants Oz 📣 (@slpng_giants_oz) CONFIRMED: @Specsavers Australia have removed their ads form Sky News!!!



THANK YOU we all really appreciate you taking this action.



Dont forget to thank them on Facebook too



LINK: 👇🏾https://t.co/aw2Z5zp0rx …#Auspol #AdShame #NotMyAustralia via @DanielMIrwin pic.twitter.com/vCWlKBhQid

American Express announced on Tuesday that it had decided to suspend its relationship with the channel, while the Australian travel company Luxury Escapes has also pulled ads from Sky.

In response to the furore over the interview with Cottrell, who has previously said he wanted a portrait of Hitler in every school classroom, Sky announced a shakeup of its newsroom procedures, suspended the program in question, The Adam Giles Show, and acknowledged it had erred by having the far-right figure on the network.

Sky News reach to grow with broadcast on free-to-air across regional Australia Read more

Qantas, which airs Sky News on its flights and in airport lounges, has said it will not be altering its commercial relationship with the network.

On Wednesday, Sleeping Giants Oz continued to direct volunteer activists to contact other companies that advertised with Sky.

It claimed the number of advertisers on the network after 6pm (when news programming is replaced with opinion shows) had fallen dramatically on Tuesday night.

Sleeping Giants Oz 📣 (@slpng_giants_oz) SKY NEWS ADVERTISER COMPARISON: Just a quick look at the ads after 6pm - from the day our action started to the next day



Advertisers dropped from 47 to 26 overnight🤔😳



We dont promise this will continue, so we need YOU to keep making GIANT NOISE ✊🏾✊🏼📣#Auspol #AdShame pic.twitter.com/QVJw8EkluW

Cottrell’s Twitter account was suspended for a week on Tuesday after he posted on social media about hypothetically raping staff members at Sky News. His account was not suspended by Facebook.