Red Bull, CarMax, Kia, And Virgin America Among Businesses Pulling Sponsorship Of Clippers After Owner’s Racist Comments

Updated — 7:11 p.m. ET:

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File

A number of corporate sponsors decided Monday to pull or suspend their support for the Los Angeles Clippers in response to racist remarks Donald Sterlingallegedly made.

The NBA will hold a press conference on Tuesday about its investigation involving Sterling, but in the meantime the fallout over the remarks continued.

BuzzFeed reached out to sponsors on Monday. Following are their responses:

Corona has decided to suspend their sponsorship, despite earlier today saying they were reviewing their agreement with the team, spokeswoman Emily Reynolds told BuzzFeed:

Like everyone else, Corona is appalled by the comments allegedly made by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. These comments run counter to the type of brand Corona aspires to be. Because of this, we are suspending our sponsorship agreement with the Clippers until the NBA completes its investigation.

Red Bull says it is suspending all team marketing activities with the Clippers. Red Bull sent BuzzFeed the following statement:

We trust and respect the NBA’s process to formally investigate the matter, and in the interim, are suspending all team-related marketing activities. We will continue to support our Red Bull athlete, Blake Griffin, his teammates and coaching staff in their pursuit of an NBA title.

CarMax was first to pull away from the Clippers. CarMax sent BuzzFeed the following statement:

CarMax finds the statements attributed to the Clippers’ owner completely unacceptable. These views directly conflict with CarMax’s culture of respect for all individuals. While we have been a proud Clippers sponsor for 9 years and support the team, fans and community, these statements necessitate that CarMax end its sponsorship.

Southern California-based performance water brand, AQUAhydrate, is also suspending its relationship with the Clippers and issued the following statement:

In the wake of Donald Sterling’s alleged defamatory and intolerable comments we have decided to suspend our sponsorship with the LA Clippers until the NBA completes its investigation. We fully support the players and fans of the LA Clippers and wish them the best in the remainder of the playoffs.

Virgin America is ending its relationship with the Clippers, a rep for the airline confirmed to BuzzFeed.

Car manufacturer Kia is suspending its advertising and sponsorship of the team, CNBC reported.

Sprint said Monday that it is suspending marketing activities with the Clippers, saying in statement: “We deplore the reprehensible comments expressed in the audiotape.”

Following conflicting reports it was pulling sponsorship, State Farm said it is a “taking a pause” in an official statement:

The remarks attributed to the Clippers’ owner are offensive. While those involved sort out the facts, we will be taking a pause in our relationship with the organization. We are monitoring the situation and we’ll continually assess our options. We have a great relationship with Chris Paul and will continue supporting the Born to Assist advertising campaign involving Chris and now other NBA players.

LoanMart confirms to BuzzFeed it is suspending its partnership with the Clippers. It pulled the team’s logo from its website this afternoon and the auto title loans company posted the following statement on Facebook:

The statements allegedly made by Donald Sterling are completely inconsistent with the views and ethics of the LoanMart organization.

As a result, LoanMart is suspending our advertising and sponsorship activities for the Los Angeles Clippers for the time being and will continue to monitor the situation for further developments. We want to emphasize our continued support for the Clippers players, coaching staff and fans during this difficult time.

Amtrak’s partnership with the Clippers expired at the end of the regular season and the company said it will continue to monitor the situation as it makes sponsorship decisions for 2014–15:

Amtrak believes the language used is unacceptable and is inconsistent with our corporate belief to treat everyone with integrity and dignity. Our sponsorship with the LA Clippers expired at the end of the regular season a few weeks ago. As with any sponsorship advertising, some assets remain in market – to that end we are diligently working to remove all sponsorship assets. Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the situation as we look to make decisions about 2014-15 sports marketing sponsorships.

Lumber Liquidators tells BuzzFeed in a statement that the hardwood flooring retailer is also suspending its relationship with the Clippers:

In light of the racist comments allegedly made by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Lumber Liquidators is suspending all planned advertising for the team’s 2014-2015 season until further notice.

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