Advertising Week confirms withdrawal of support for Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace
Advertising Week has confirmed that it no longer plans to support the Prince Andrew-backed tech initiative Pitch@Palace following his recent interview around his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Advertising Week confirms withdrawal of support for Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace
Prince Andrew has backed the annual event which aims to promote start-ups across the UK for several years, but the event is now facing an exodus from sponsors as a result of his connections to Epstein who faced several sex charges prior to his death while in custody earlier this year.
Advertising Week Europe was planning to host the Prince at next year’s event, it is understood and was a backer of Pitch@Palace until today.
Contacted by The Drum in relation to its plans to work with the Prince in the future, a spokesperson for Advertising Week commented: "We are committed to creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to showcase their ground-breaking ideas, which is what initially attracted us to engage with and support Pitch.
"While our support for entrepreneurs remains just as strong, we can confirm that Advertising Week Europe is no longer involved with Pitch@Palace."
Other sponsors to pull out of Pitch@Palace have included Cisco and KPMG, while others such as Barclays and Air Asia have declined to comment when asked whether they planned to continue to support the event.