A Facebook group has been set up to pressure advertisers to withdraw their support for Network Ten’s The Bolt Report, which made its debut on Sunday morning.

Called ‘Operation: Bolt Cutter’, the page contains contact details of the key advertisers in every city where the show, anchored by Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, aired. The event group has 545 ‘attendees’.

The advertisers featured on the page, which aired commercials in ad breaks during The Bolt Report, included Hungry Jack’s, Mr Rental’s, Volkswagen, L’Oreal, Skoda, iPrimus, Barnacle Bills, Dettol, Sustagen, EastLink, Shine Lawyers, Telechoice, Garnier Fructis Nutri-Repair, Holden cars and CPA.

Some advertisers have responded to letters from the group, some advising that they have already pulled advertising from the show. According to a response from one Operation: Bolt Cutter member, TeleChoice wrote:

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TeleChoice strives to advertise on programs that align with our company values. We routinely monitor the media in which our brand messages appear and make advertising decisions that meet our policies.

The TeleChoice television commercial aired during The Bolt Report was advertising air time purchased prior to Channel Ten altering its programming. Since reviewing the program, TeleChoice has decided to no longer advertise in this timeslot as some of the program’s content is not aligned with TeleChoice’s brand values.

It is never our intent to endorse content that could offend our customers.

Another group member claimed that he received a response from Mr Rental, which would also be withdrawing its ads from the show.

On its first run, The Bolt Report pulled in 163,000 viewers in its morning slot and 123,000 for its afternoon encore.