The message is at last sinking in across corporate America: go woke for no strategic reason and expect to go broke.
Ever since retailer giant Target released his “PRIDE” collection in May — rife with “tuckable” genitalia swimsuits, kids clothes, books and rainbow-sheathed drinks — its share price has dipped to the lowest in more than three years to a loss of more than $12 billion. In response to the ongoing backlash, the Minneapolis-based brand has been compelled to bury the merchandise to the back of some stores or pull the garish line altogether.
The controversy comes on the heels of the Anheuser-Busch-produced Bud Light disaster earlier this year, in which the iconic brand idiotically partnered with trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. More than six weeks after the marketing faux pas and the well-worn beverage staple is down 25% compared to a year earlier, clocking in a loss of over $5 billion, with the fallout showing no signs of slowing down. (RELATED: SUZANNE DOWNING: The Marketing Geniuses At Budweiser Forgot One Cardinal Rule)
Let this be a lesson not only to the corporate bigwigs. Beer drinkers are all Americans; they are unpretentious and generally mind their own business.
They might not be as loud and brash as the angry LGBTQ+ activists, but they know when they are being lectured and are smart enough to vote with their money. Big brands should think twice before hiring fresh-out-of-school, elite and woke-minded executives with little life experience to understand what resonates with most of the nation.
Bud Light’s faux pauses didn’t just begin a month or two ago; it started by putting the wrong person in the top job for the wrong reasons. Back in the day, most of us had to work our way through the hustle and grind. Today, if you check a diversity box and can preach wokeism to the worried older set, you’re a shoo-in for high-rank positions you never had to earn.
The Mars Inc.-owned M&M candies also suffered the tragedy of becoming a national laughingstock after tweaking its “spokes candies” for the sake of “diversity,” a move subsequently abandoned this year with its tail between its legs.
Oh, the lunacy.
Nonetheless, these seemingly small but significant wins mean the tide is finally turning. For so long, we’ve all had lefty propaganda shoved down our throats and before our eyes, with anyone daring to speak out attacked by the vicious woke mob and the vitriols of a cancel culture and consumer boycott movements buried by Big Tech algorithms and drowned out by the mainstream media (MSM).
Only now, something has snapped. There is no NGO or union or organized body in your ear telling you not to buy Bud Light or skip your Sunday Target run. Instead, this is a grassroots pushback by Americans tired of being bullied by the far left. Not to mention, once you start coming at kids with propaganda, be prepared for every mama bear to come out in defense.
The political landscape is finally changing, too. Several states have introduced and passed laws limiting transition care for transgender minors and adults, thus not allowing the issue to slip away unscathed.
And while most of Silicon Valley and the MSM does their best to squash the voices unaligned with their slants, these victories are also a credit to Elon Musk for opening up Twitter as a fair platform not driven by the left’s censorship and shadow banning, as well as the massive amount of podcasts and alternative media platforms that enable a multitude of perspectives to be seen and heard.
And yes, while we are on the sensible side of the nonsense and have recently recorded a few triumphs, the battle is only beginning.
Keep in mind, these corporations falling over themselves to print rainbows on their packaging and ink fat endorsement deals with men who suddenly decide to be women are not necessarily doing it out of the diverse purity of their hearts but out of fear they will fall out of favor with the social credit scores handed out by the demanding Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
The political lobbying group tracks businesses with a yearly Corporate Equality Index (CEI), blasting report cards with its mafia-style “rating criteria” that push investors to turn to the LGBTQ-bowing companies over those who are simply trying to get on without and stay out of the kids-colored fray.
Then there is the ever-growing Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) criterion for “ethical investing,” whereby major funds invest in companies that kiss the feet of the woke agenda, meaning big dollars are at stake for companies that don’t cater to the minority but almighty mob.
However, let the calamities of the last few months be a warning — your bottom line and your legacy might hurt much more with an ill-thought-out cower to the CEI/ESG/LGBTQ wrath. The consumer pushback isn’t about rejecting the gay or trans communities; this is about rejecting the brainwashing that now comes with it.
My beer, food choices, clothes and most importantly — my children — are not your political fodder to mess around with under the guise of “inclusivity.”
Most Americans are merely trying to make ends meet and don’t appreciate the lectures. And they will tell you so — with their feet and wallets.
Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, a New York & Miami based political strategy and communications firm. His firm has worked with Jim Brown, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Eboni Williams, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Andrew Giuliani, Governor Haley Barbour, Steve Hilton. Anthony Scaramucci, and more.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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