-By Kenneth Hein

Aflac announced today (July 21) that it is pulling its ads from the nationally-syndicated talk radio show The Savage Nation. A rep for the insurance provider told Brandweek that it will no longer advertise on the show hosted by Michael Savage (real name Michael Alan Weiner) because of offensive comments he made about children with autism.

“Aflac has a strong commitment to helping children through the Aflac Cancer Center and Aflac Foundation,” said a rep. “We understand that radio hosts pick on any number of targets however we found his recent comments about autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.”

Aflac spent $90 million on advertising last year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

During a recent show, Weiner said that autism is a scam. "I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99% of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is," said the popular talk show host who went on to call autistic children “idiots” and “morons.”

Organizations like The Autism Action Network provided the contact information for many of the shows' major advertisers to parents and advocates. Groups have called for a boycott of Weiner's show.

Last year, Lowe’s pulled ads from the Big Brother 9 TV show on CBS because of the comments a contestant made about autistic children.

Weiner’s statement at Michaelsavage.com read: “My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as ‘autistic.’ Just as some drug companies have over-diagnosed ‘ADD’ and ‘ADHD’ to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as 4 years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by over-diagnosing autism, for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!”

Autism is a neurological disorder that currently affects at least 1-in-150 children in the United States. It has received widespread news coverage of late because of the Time magazine cover story “The Truth About Vaccines” as well as Jenny McCarthy’s media blitz supporting her book Louder Than Words and the “Green Our Vaccines” rally in Washington, D.C. last month.