Jessa Duggar Explains Odd Family Tradition While Sponsors Complain About Commercials Airing During ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On’ [Video]
In the latest sneak peek from Jill & Jessa: Counting On, Jessa Duggar gives viewers a glimpse into a Duggar family tradition — eating pickles! According to Jessa, the tradition started when her mom, Michelle, was pregnant for the first time and craved pickles.
“The Duggars love pickles,” Jessa confesses in the clip, adding that she thinks “it probably started in that when my mom is pregnant, she craves pickles.” In fact, whenever Michelle grabs a pickle to snack on, the family teases her that she must be pregnant, Jessa Duggar laughingly explains.
Jessa Duggar and husband Ben made plans to adopt a sibling for son Spurgeon on #CountingOn! https://t.co/nLka8sSecI pic.twitter.com/vrxXfXY2Ne
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) March 23, 2016
The tradition is so important to the Duggar family that they even film the first time a new family member eats a pickle, which naturally includes the baby’s priceless expression. Jo-Anna Duggar explains that “[a]ny time a family member tries a pickle for the first time, we always go around and take videos and pictures and everybody comes around to watch their facial expression.”
Israel’s first time tasting a pickle is no different. In the clip from Jill & Jessa: Counting On, the family shares video of baby Israel trying a pickle for the very first time, and the results are hilarious.
Israel’s mother, Jill, explains that the adorable baby has only two teeth, which makes it hard for him to chew. But Israel himself doesn’t look too sure about the pickle as he scrunches up his nose and puckers his mouth! Unsure about the taste, Israel spits the treat out, but then he grabs it to sneak another test bite.
While things are going smoothly for Dillard and her family in Central America, the Jill & Jessa: Counting On star explains that not only is becoming a parent a new experience for them, raising Israel in another country is different as well.
But things aren’t going as smoothly for Jill & Jessa: Counting On, which premiered to high ratings but was quickly slammed by sponsors. According to Perez Hilton, many brands have called TLC demanding that their commercials not be aired during Jill & Jessa: Counting On or during any future Duggar programs. While a few brands have explained that they purchased a block of time which did not necessarily give them control over whether their ads aired during a Duggar show, after receiving customer complaints, they confirmed that they contacted the network to complain about the placement.
Verizon Wireless explained that it purchased a “direct response buy, which means we did not have control over where the advertisement ran.” The mobile phone giant concluded that it “never intended to advertise on the program or on TLC.”
The UPS Store was one company to slam TLC for airing their ads during Jill & Jessa: Counting On and, in a written statement, confirmed to consumers that it was “not our intention to advertise on the program.” The statement added that Jill & Jessa: Counting On “is [now] on our list of exclusions as well as any other potential Duggar programming.”
The state of Michigan’s tourism board, Pure Michigan, confirmed to viewers that Jill & Jessa: Counting On “does not meet our brand guidelines,” and it “contacted TLC immediately after learning about this mistake, and have been assured no Pure Michigan ads will run on this program moving forward.”
Although Jill & Jessa: Counting On has met with a large and favorable audience, the Duggar family still has not been able to move past the scandals from last year that threatened to sink them. According to media expert David Johnson, the CEO of Strategic Visions, who spoke with In Touch magazine, the Duggar family is “radioactive right now,” and TLC has a tough road ahead.
Although viewers seem to like the new reality show, some still believe that “this new show is just a desperate ploy by the Duggars to reclaim the spotlight and hopefully make some dollars off the public.”
What do you think? Should the brands have pulled their commercials from Jill & Jessa: Counting On? Will the Duggar family eventually be pulled off television? Leave a comment below!
[Image via Instagram]
