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"Twenty-seven companies have pulled their ads from Village Voice Media, after an online petition called on advertisers to stop working with the publication. \nJustin Wassel, an Ohio minister, launched a petition \"Village Voice Advertisers: Pull Advertisement until Backpage.com Adult Section is Shut Down,\" which has amassed more than 3,000 signatures. \n\"I'm thrilled to hear so many companies have dropped their advertisements from Village Voice Media publications,\" Wassel says. \"Many of them are major national brands who cater to families and children, so it's only natural they should be concerned about their advertisements supporting child sex trafficking.\" \nH&amp;M, Ikea, Best Buy, AT&amp;T and Barnes and Noble are among the companies that have stopped advertising with Village Voice Media since the petition was launched.\nA previous Change.org petition, telling Village Voice Media to discontinue the adult section of Backpage.com, picked up a lot of steam during the past month. The petition, \"Tell Village Voice Media to Stop Child Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com,\" has received more than 235,000 signatures as of Thursday. The initial petition was launched by Groundswell, a multi-faith social action coalition.\nThe complete list of companies who have stopped advertising with Village Voice Media includes American Airlines, AT&amp;T, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Buddy Stubbs, Carnegie Hall, the Children's Wish Foundation International, Crown Imports LLC, H&amp;M, Harkins Theatre, Harley Davidson, High Times, Ikea, Live Nation, Macy's, Miami Dolphins, MillerCoors, New York Public Radio, the NYC Film Forum, Park Avenue Church, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, REI, Relativity Media, Starbucks, T-Mobile and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.\nIs it the responsibility of advertisers to only place spots on brands whose values they support? Let us know what message you think brands send when choosing where to place ads.\nImage via Flickr, Shrieking Tree"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/05/04/village-voice-advertisers/>