Wal-Mart, Kraft, adidas, Reebok, Toyota and J.M. Smucker Company Join Coalition to Oppose ICANN’s Top Level Domain Expansion Program
SAG, AFTRA and NRF Also Publicly Oppose ICANN TLD Proposal, Send Letters to DOC
WASHINGTON (Nov. 17, 2011) — Six major marketers, including the world's largest retailer and the second-largest food company, have joined CRIDO, the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight, which is opposing ICANN's Top Level Domain (TLD) Expansion program.
Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods, adidas, Reebok, Toyota and the J.M. Smucker Company have all joined, which brings the number of companies and industry groups that are part of the Coalition to 93. The full list can be found here.
"We are very pleased that six more leading marketers representing an extremely broad range of business sectors have joined forces with CRIDO to oppose ICANN's TLD expansion program," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). "This growing coalition sends a very clear signal that there is serious dissatisfaction with ICANN's program from across the entire internet stakeholder community."
Liodice also noted that the National Retail Federation, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) recently sent letters to the Department of Commerce expressing serious concerns about the TLD expansion. He concluded: "We believe it is critical that the DOC responds to the concerns of both industry and the talent community by taking strong efforts to urge ICANN to delay the TLD expansion."
On November 10, CRIDO sent a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce expressing strong objections to the new TLD expansion program that was approved by ICANN last June. The members of CRIDO are meeting with key members of Congress to discuss the serious problems with this proposal.
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About the ANA
The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.
About CRIDO
The Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO) represents 93 influential national and international trade associations and companies, including all the members of the World Federation of Advertisers that have joined together to oppose the roll-out of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) program to expand internet top-level domain names. CRIDO members, representing some 90 percent of global marketing communications spending (equivalent to $700 billion annually), cite the proposal's deeply flawed justification, excessive cost and harm to brand owners, likelihood of predatory cyber harm to consumers and lack of stakeholder consensus, a core requirement of its commitment to the U.S. Department of Commerce. For more information, visit http://www.crido.org/.
Press Contacts
Luna Newton, CooperKatz & Company for the ANA
lnewton@cooperkatz.com or 917.595.3061
Jamie Bezozo, CooperKatz & Company for the ANA
jbezozo@cooperkatz.com or 917.595.3032