Total cancels an advertising campaign in Le Monde after an investigation by the newspaper. (drawing) – ISA HARSIN / SIPA
Total did not like that the newspaper
Le Monde accuses him in an investigation for sharing his gas revenues with the Burmese military. Following this investigation published in the pages of the national daily, the oil giant canceled an advertising campaign that it had planned to broadcast in the newspaper, we learned Thursday from the daily. For its part, Total made no comment.
The world published an investigation on Tuesday which revealed that a financial package around a gas pipeline operated by Total in Burma would have made it possible for years to direct hundreds of millions of dollars from gas sales directly to the military in this country, to the detriment of the Burmese state.
The World dependent on advertising at only 22%
An especially symbolic sanction for the newspaper, Total not being a big advertiser. In addition, the daily, thanks to the success of its digital subscriptions, is doing well financially and has reduced its dependence on advertising in the last years, which represents about 22% of its revenues.
And this is not the first time that the daily has been deprived of advertising by a company implicated in one of its articles. In 2015, banking giant HSBC withdrew its ads from the media, including The world and the British daily The Guardian, which had published “Swissleaks”, revelations about a case of large-scale tax evasion.
Other French newspapers have been confronted with similar situations. LVMH had withdrawn in 2012 its Liberation advertisements after its front page which implicated its boss Bernard Arnault, with the provocative title “Casse toi riche con”.