ABC Pulls ADM’s Brinkley Commercials

David Brinkley is no longer welcome on the program that once bore his name. Not as a corporate pitchman, anyway. ABC News said it has told the advertising agency for Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland that the network will no longer accept its commercials featuring Brinkley. They show Brinkley in a role strikingly similar to the one he had performed on ABC’s “This Week.” Prepared by ad agency Jones & Thomas, also of Decatur, the commercials began airing on the Sunday morning public-affairs program Jan. 4. Brinkley, 77, retired last October from the program he launched in 1981. The commercials from longtime “This Week” sponsor ADM had been cleared by the network beforehand, ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said. “But we were told the spots would air on other Sunday morning public-affairs programs too,” she said. When the ads had not appeared elsewhere, the New York-based network pulled them Wednesday.