The Sleeping Giants collective, which has set itself the goal of denouncing companies that display their advertisements on websites deemed ‘hateful,’ ‘extremist,’ or ‘racist,’ is launching a new offensive. After the collective publicly denounced a major DIY retailer for placing ads in the conservative investigative magazine Frontières, the company quickly pulled its advertising. The move has further strained the magazine’s finances, adding to a series of coordinated attacks aimed at isolating and weakening it.
In 2019, the collective launched a virulent attack on the CNews channel on the grounds that the polemicist Éric Zemmour had a prime-time programme there with a very large audience. Many companies targeted online eventually pulled their ads from the channel, owned by conservative Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, depriving it of significant revenue—especially as it receives no public subsidies.
Now, the collective is targeting Frontières. The campaign, conducted mainly on X, has received the support of far-left MP Thomas Portes, who is no stranger to denigrating, insulting, and defaming people he does not like—something which has already earned him reprimands in the national assembly and convictions in court.
The DIY chain Leroy-Merlin was denounced on X by the Sleeping Giants in these terms:
Your ad, @LeroyMerlinFr, appears on the abject Frontières website, which is obsessed with immigration, sells merchandise with the RN’s xenophobic slogan and is accused of defaming human rights NGOs. Is that OK with you?
The brand’s community manager was quick to bow to the public pressure and announced that it would withdraw its advertisements from the Frontières website:
Hello, your alert has been taken into account. The website mentioned has been immediately added to our advertising block list. We do not condone the comments made on this platform or the messages that have been relayed there.
Frontières denounced Sleeping Giants’ desire to stifle the publication, fearing that Google’s advertising agency would eventually ban their site entirely.
After the announcement by Leroy-Merlin, regularly awarded the title of “France’s favourite retailer,” a wave of indignation swept across the internet from supporters of Frontières—especially given that Leroy-Merlin stores are owned by the Mulliez family, a famous Catholic business family from northern France that owns many popular retail chains in France. Leroy-Merlin had already withdrawn its advertisements from CNews in 2020.
Calls for a boycott of Leroy-Merlin have grown, coming from widely followed accounts such as that of the national right-wing influencer Damien Rieu—although it is unfortunately not certain that they will be followed; boycotts are not very common in France, except in a few minority activist circles. 60% of workers vote for the RN, as a right-wing influencer on X pointed out—Leroy-Merlin’s commercial target, since many craft businesses source their supplies from its stores.
In the United Kingdom, similar campaigns have targeted the GB News channel, under the banner of “Stop funding hate,” attacking the channel for its alleged anti-LGBT bias. The stakes of such attacks can be very high for the targeted media, whose advertising revenue is essential to their operation.
The response must be financial, but also legal, as Erik Tegnér, editor-in-chief of Frontières, pointed out, renewing his calls for subscriptions and donations. He himself has been the target of physical attacks for several months. The magazine’s latest issue, which denounced the compromises made by French mayors with Islamists, was a great success but unleashed the wrath of the Left and the far left, who are demanding—so far to no avail—the withdrawal of Frontières’ press accreditations, following the example of what happened to the satirical magazine La Furia a few weeks ago.
Boasting of his success subduing Leroy-Merlin, MP Thomas Portes has launched a new attack on Auchan, a supermarket chain also owned by the Mulliez family. Political figures such as Stanislas Rigault, former spokesperson for Reconquête, and RN MP Kévin Pfeffer have come to Frontières’ defence against Leroy-Merlin.
