We have been discussing shareholder and consumer opposition to companies like Disney and BudLight tying their brands to social agendas and political questions. Now a Gallup survey shows that public support for these companies is continuing to fall, even among Democrats who still overall favor corporate messaging on social and political issues. Only 41 percent now approve of such corporate campaigns. However, neither public support nor sales were the driving forces behind these campaigns.
The support for these corporate campaigns has dropped another seven percentage points since the last survey. Given the political alignment of companies like Disney, it is not surprising that they receive their greatest support among Democrats who would likely change their views if companies began to adopt opposing views. Currently 62% of Democrats believe businesses should take a public stance on current events. That is down from 75% just a year ago. Only 17% of Republicans and 36% of independents favor these corporate campaigns.
Yet, even with the drop, these companies knew beforehand that roughly half of their consumer base opposed their entry into social and political messaging. Indeed, after BudLight imploded over its promotion featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, other companies boldly moved forward with their own controversial commercials including shaving company Braun, clothing company North Face, shoe company Nike, and jeans company Levi’s.
Disney, however, shows how resistant executives can be to consumer backlash. For years, Disney’s controversial movies and policies have driven away many families — and reduced profits. Now, CEO Robert Iger is saying that he wants to “quiet the noise” with the company’s fight with Florida and take a less controversial public position.
Yet, earlier this year, I wrote that Disney would ultimately have to back down in a fight that it could not win in the long run. Instead, Iger moved aggressively against the state and threatened to pull out of major projects. At the same time, the company moved ahead with controversial retakes on classic movies. Revenues at the company have continued to fall and layoffs increased. Now, Iger apparently has had enough — at least in the fight with Florida.
Indeed, some executives appear to dislike their base. Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, appears to have cost the company billions after pledging to drop Bud Light’s “fratty reputation and embrace inclusivity.”
She certainly succeeded in changing the entire view of the brand in less than a year on the job. Heinerscheid knew that the brand image sells the beer. That image is now unpalatable for many consumers. The social value of these campaigns is lost if consumers reject beer with the branding message.
The Gallup poll again raises the question of who these companies are selling to. Like many media outlets that have written off half of the country, these campaigns are slashing the market for products in order for companies to sell political or social positions. Even many Democrats now want companies to get back to just selling their products and stay out of politics.
The legal question, again, is whether shareholders have a claim to demand an accounting from the management over such campaigns.
I had to laugh reading it.
“The legal question, again, is whether shareholders have a claim to demand an accounting from the management over such campaigns.”
There isn’t even a question, of course they do. We’ve heard that for decades now. The “leaders” into the pit don’t suddenly get some excuse because it’s a demonrat political campaign that killed the golden goose.
I’m sure though, many excuses and lies have been crafted and they already lined up loads of corruption to demoncratwiggle out of accountability. No doubt about it.
I don’t care who the CEO of Disney is. His arrogance is going to kill his company. Not exactly an unknown thing in the corporate world. GE is but a shadow of the giant it once was and that was before the woke world descended. IBM at one time was supposed to rule the computer world with the PC and MS-DOS but that never happened. Apple nearly died after Steve Jobs was fired and then he returned and it is now a computing, music, entertainment, iPhone powerhouse. The market is severely brutal about those that fail to remember the rules. Adapt and live or forget and die. Japan learned this in WW2. It was called “Victory Disease”. They swept from victory to victory while the seeds of the own destruction were ignored. Overstretched, lack of a robust logistics train, World beating aircraft but only against out of date air forces. Totally different story after 6 -12 months. Defeat focuses the mind and sharpens your tactics, if you listen and learn
BUD CEO Brendan Whitworth worked for the CIA before he became CEO. Many are wondering if he has pictures….
Not a surprise, intel destroying whatever it wants for decades now.
I heard the mass owners of beer brands also own much of AB, and thus any movement of beer purchases to alternate brands means they still make money.
I believe there is a large factor of that in all this woke disruption of companies, which makes the inexplicable understandable.
Many if not most of these companies are simply pandering to minorities in order not to get branded a racist or homophobic, etc and canceled. All it takes is one liberal nutcase to post something on social media to start a groundswell of hate and accusations from their nutty peers. I mean look at TV shows, game shows, commercials, etc.. The percentage of minorities are staggering compared to their percentage of the population. It’s all, who can pander the most to prove they are woke.
I knew the discussion here would descend into “they have a legal right to do it.” That is so beside the point. This article is not about rights, but about why a corporation would do this knowing it is a money-lower. Professor Turley never said they didn’t have the right, and he never would. Your accusation of hypocrisy misses the mark.
OldManFromKS,
I believe the good professor’s point is if these are publicly traded companies, then knowing full well to make a decision to endorse an ideology that is counter to the consumers of their product that results in millions or billions in losses and declined stocks, should not those who made the decisions be held accountable to the stockholders?
After all, no one in their right mind would say, I am going to buy your stock knowing you are going to do things to make my investment go into the red.
Unconstitutional welfare and affirmative action lead private sector entities to emulate unconstitutional communist mandates.
Favor and charity are unconstitutional as federal mandates and laws.
Equity is the ABSENCE of bias and favoritism.
Welfare, affirmative action, etc., must be ended, abolished, and fully abrogated, directly into the dustbin of history.
All redistribution of wealth is unconstitutional, including, but not limited to, public assistance, “welfare,” favor, charity, etc.
All affirmative action is unconstitutional; Congress cannot regulate or otherwise “claim or exercise dominion” over private property.
Americans enjoy the freedom of speech, thought, opinion, choice, discrimination, oh, and “racism…”
…no matter how much you or anyone else holds the position or opinion that it is rude, immoral, disrespectful, impolite, arrogant, or discourteous.
Understanding that property damage and bodily injury, etc., have always been and will always be illegal…
People must adapt to the outcomes of freedom.
Freedom does not adapt to people.
Dictatorship does.
The DIS and BUD working motto: We are so wealthy we can afford stupid management longer than our competitors!
Professor Turley is a hired gun for a corporate company which paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit for repeatedly pushing false narratives about the 2020 election. As a result of the defamation lawsuit, Fox News fired Tucker Carlson & Lou Dobbs.
Fox News also faces a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic & another defamation lawsuit filed by Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who Fox News hosts falsely claimed was an undercover FBI agent who orchestrated the January 6 storming of the Capitol. Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene & Matt Gaetz also falsely accused Epps of being an FBI agent who led the January 6th Capitol assault.
Fox News CEO, Roger Ailes, was forced to resign after being accused of sexual harassment by several female Fox News staffers. Bill O’Reilly was fired over sexual harassment accusations.
We all know who Turley’s corporate company is selling to. A recent CNN poll shows 69% of Republicans don’t believe Biden is a legitimate president. Fox News can definitely take a victory lap on that one. Their misinformed Republican viewers are the ones Turley is happily addressing with each of his appearances.
“Professor Turley is a hired gun for . . .”
Self-identifies as an argument.
Most people invest in mutual funds that comprise of many companies stocks or they invest in market index funds that track a markets over all performance.
Big investors or hedge funds will buy individual companies stocks, generally in large volumes. Bill Gates recently invested in EnBev seeing it as a good value as the stock has taken a big hit in the wake of the Mulvaney mess.
Will he be right in a few years?
Time will tell.
I get a little more involved in my stock picks and will choose to avoid companies that go woke. I have done pretty dang good.
However, neither public support nor sales were the driving forces behind these campaigns.
This is a tantalizing, dangling sentence that was not followed up upon. It is, in my view, the most interesting part of the discussion. Since money basically runs everything, how can this be? And how is it that so few high level executives ever face adverse consequences of their anti-customer campaigns? The answer must be that the companies are getting huge amounts of money through the back door when they go woke. Where is that money coming from? Who is behind it and what are their goals?
P.S. I’m aware the above doesn’t hold true entirely for Bud Lite. To that I’d say Bud Lite is the limiting principle. If a company’s woke positions cause it to lose billions of dollars, that’s simply not going to be totally made up for by the backdoor money. But Bud Lite is exceptional in many ways, including that virtually all lite beers basically taste the same and so customers can more easily find good substitutes than with many other products.
One charitable gloss to put on all this is that the advocates for “woke” messaging are blinded by ideology. They believe the future will be theirs but do not register that most people outside their bubble are not like that and such change, if it happens, will be generational. So they speak to a market that they hope and expect may exist in 2040 or 2050, and antagonize the market of 2023.
@oldman
It is interesting. The people these companies are showing the most contempt for is their shareholders. If they don’t care about that, there’s almost no question they are being funded some other way unless they really are that stupid and inept.
What about the real owners, who own large pieces of many brands, and make the money even when all the brandies switch to something else ?
That explains it all.
I read at least one article about it.
“Since money basically runs everything, how can this be?”
Because your premise is mistaken.
Fundamentally, it is basic ideas that run everything. And those companies operate on a profoundly irrational idea: That their job is social engineering.
Walter Igor? When did he become CEO of Disney???
One of my pet peeves for going on 50 years is that our public schools do not educate our students on the basics of how businesses work – Land, Labor and Capital —-
JT, get off your high horse of free speech and all things demo being bad. It is far past time that you stand up to the fascist ways of the trump party.
https://www.alternet.org/threats-and-plea-deals-here-s-your-fulton-19-recap/
Stop calling what trump and all his acolytes do as free speech. trump and his supporters are nothing short of fascist just like 1938 in Germany. History will treat the current crop of trump fascist racists very badly, and yes JT, you are now included on that end of the spectrum with your endless support of everything trump does is not so nice but legal while everything Biden and the demos do is bad.
I am curious how many who post on this site have also made threats against those trying to bring trump to justice. My guess is more than a few. Stop it, vote and accept the results, If you have a better idea, let’s hear it. This constant F— Biden because, well just because trump says so must stop.
You sound like a demagogue who dehumanizes people who disagree with you so you can feel righteous spitting fire at them. Despite failing to add value to the public sphere, I still support your right to say foolish things.
CryBaby – that’s a fitting screen name. Anyways most media outlets lean left. A small handful, such as this blog, lean right. Surveys have consistently shown that over 90% of people in the news business always vote Democrat.
What I’m getting at is: if you want liberal commentary, it’s easy to find. Virtually all of society is drowning in it. The fact that you just can’t stand that this one blog leans right means that you, sir, are the fascist. As is so common on the Left, you are projecting.
Your “guess is more than a few”. I guess that settles it.
@ CryBabyTrump
Well, thank you for proving that you just can’t fix stupid.
The problem with your claim is that pretty much “all things demo” are that bad. And you can not really prove it otherwise. If you can, do it since you imply it to be otherwise. Is that why you only provide a reference that does not even address your “free speech” issue while adding it to your innuendos regarding others that post here. Really? Is that the best you can do?
Of course, you recall Chuck Schumer threatening SCOTUS members?
Of course, you remember some whacko showing up from California at Kavanaugh’s home after that tirade from Schumer.
Of course, you now know that Joe and his team tried multiple avenues to shut down opposing views on social media. Even the Courts have agreed.
Of course, you know that racism has been part and parcel of the culture of Democrats for generations. As in slavery, the Civil War (all those confederates were Democrats), the Klu Klux Klan (the Democratic party’s first paramilitary group), Woody Wilson’s segregation of the military and bureaucracy, FDR’s initiating of red lining policies, FDR’s blocking anti-lynching laws, FDR’s rounding up anyone with a Japanese sounding surname and putting them into camps after confiscating their property, the Democrats opposing the Civil Rights Acts, etc. And then there is Joe Biden opposing busing and likening involved areas to ‘jungles’. (Even Kamala Harris caught that but you did not?)
Of course, you know that under Biden that his DOJ has targeted parents of school children who oppose the policies of Joe’s bureaucrats.
You get the idea yet? These abuses by the Democratic Party span generations and approaching 200 years.
No civilized individual from any political party condones physical threats. However, to paint the entire opposition with such an accusation and then equate them to the “fascist just like 1938 in Germany” ignores the entire filthy history of the Democratic party. The activities that the “fascists” did for 20 years in Germany is what the Klan did for generations under the protective hand of the Democratic Party. And that is only one example. How many lives and families were wrecked because of red-lining and segregation that were products of the Democratic Party? And now the Democrats are resurrecting those policies through CRT?
Your ignorance of the history of the tactics of the Democratic Party is shameful. The situation could only be worse if you are intentionally omitting that history to deliver a cheap punch to opponents of the Democratic Party.
No, many of us are just fair, not ‘right leaning’, it’s just that to modern, brainwashed lowfos, anything a single millimeter toward the center is ‘right wing’, a statement in and of itself that means nothing. You have posted a very ignorant comment. Not the first, not the last. I can only imagine someone must be very privileged to make such pettiness and superficiality their focus.
Clueless one, its F-Biden because he said F-us.
Investors often invest their money to large funds. The investors do not own stock in the individual companies. The large funds (middlemen) own the stock and the investors fund the large entities. So, they do what they want and are being driven an agenda. Less than three hundred such funds can control the vast majority of millions and millions of smaller companies through access to capital, thus bypassing the legislative process.
They do it because they have sufficient market power to do it. They usually have only three or four competitors, so their money has an outsized impact on the politicians who are supposed to oversee them.
They should go full full Fanny Willis on them and find a law to break them up with.
Heinerscheid and Iger are nothing more than old school bullies that rose to positions of power and immediately used that power to push their own political and social agendas at the expense of other people’s money and resources. That is not a new tactic. Lenin did it. Stalin did it. And Joe Biden is doing it (after Hillary proved herself incapable) for the man that goes unnamed’s agenda. Right, Barack?
Businesses that succumb to such old school bullies deserve to perish as they usually have arrived at a level of stagnation and lack of innovation makes them ripe for really stupid management.
Correction to my post it should read companies SHOULD NOT IMPOSE, left off NOT
I have spent my life in sales and service. I learned early on, not to pass my opinions on to my potential/current customers. Even if it somethin I feel strong about. The only thing I’m pushing in me and the company I represent. Corporate C suites are full of people that have done very little customer service. That makes them ignorant of how life is lived by the masses
Companies should avoid and ban political and social policies/subjects and just sell their products/services. Stop donating to activists/political groups across the board. MGMT should impose their beliefs on customers. Yet we have Blackrock, Google, Disney and others doing this. As well as Hollywood. Budlight refuses to say sorry, and they are trying to change their stripes? Somebody high up knew what was going on and approved yet, other than Marketing Executives the current MGMT still in place. Customers should continue to boycott activist companies, at some point these companies will get the message, take a while but they will change
Sorry made one error should read Should NOT impose
No, they won’t change, it will be normalized and the few percent outside the demonic circle won’t matter.
They have the decades of brainwashing and handles on nearly all the levers of power, that have literally turned toward the darkness the past few decades. Free speech is no longer a demoncrat value nor a value for the giants that defended it from that party’s label shortly ago, they are all turned.
Matt Gaetz is one of the very few with a spine and a plan put into action, and did anyone notice how LITTLE support he got from the big base that claims it want’s changes ? LOL boy I sure did notice it here. Expect a gigantic and continuing loss.
I find it informative that up until the past few decades the American public found it quite fine for businesses to portray traditional values such as hearth, home, and patriotism in their advertising but when these values were supplanted by non-tradional and non- Judeo/Christian values and messages with a definitely more progressive bent such as the green agenda and affirmative action, the majority has taken offense at these non-traditional values being pushed. Why do you suppose that is?
In the late 60s two young adult college age conferences were held. One was sponsored by the Radical Left Wing group SDS and the other Intervaristy Christian Missions.
The Leftists had about 250 attendees. IV had over 15,00. Which got headline coverage by magazines, media, papers? Which was lionized and promoted? Which is still chronicled by retrospective TV shows?
You know, The Radical, America hating but tiny SDS! They and the Weather Underground are famous but IV are traditional God, family and peace.
Who gets praise now?
Why? Because the first way is pro family, God and country. The second is anti family, God and country. Don’t take a brain surgeon to figure it out.
Whimsicalmama,
“Why do you suppose that is?”
Half of America has not lost their marbles, can define what a woman is, know there are two sexes and pornography should not be in elementary schools?
portray traditional values such as hearth, home, and patriotism
Then the left destroyed them. The reasons why are clear. All the values that built a great nation, must first be destroyed, then repleaced by the collective wisdom of government
Whimsical, that’s a really good question. Here’s my take after admittedly not that much reflection.
First, it used to be that baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet were as American as Apple Pie and few were offended by it. There was an old political saying that being against [whatever] is like opposing motherhood. I believe there was even a term, “a motherhood statement,” meaning a feel-good (if somewhat vague) statement made by a politician. The point is, it was understood by all that motherhood was a good thing (indeed without it our species would go extinct). But now, motherhood itself is often frowned upon, whereas singleness and abortion are seen as more valuable by a large segment of society; anyone who suggests being a wife and mother is better and more fulfilling than abortion and singleness is immediately scoffed at. That’s the canary in the coal mine. Likewise, the patriotic feeling that is natural to humankind, indeed built into human nature, is now seen by many as a bad thing. In the generation coming up patriotism is at low levels, as they have been taught the U.S. is racist, sexist, capitalist (used as a pejorative) and otherwise bad from its founding.
Anywho that’s my two cents.
Because in the first case there was a very broad and deep consensus across 80-90% of the population, and even among those who didn’t fully share it outright opposition was rare.
As opposed to today, when a vocal and influential minority, maybe 10-20% who are vigorously opposed to what the majority thinks, is driving the corporate actions in wuestion.
Hearth and home are private life – patriotism is just the expected.
The green agenda is a gigantic multi trillion dollar tax burden government spending spree that could very well cost all of us tens of thousands of dollars per x.x year.
Affirmative Action is another government intrusion into employment and advancement – another gigantic money suction and lowers standards and expectations and can remove the best, thus detrimental to overall functioning of the USA and society and is a national security issue.
So on the one hand, easily accepted, do the normal traditional thing, on your other hand – SPEND GIGANTIC PILES OF TAX DOLLARS AND WEAKEN THE USA.
Yep, it’s not apples and oranges, it’s a nice clean fresh apple and an ebola turd.
The CEO of Disney is Robert Iger, not Walter Igor. This column is often full of typos and grammatical errors, but this is the first time I am aware of that there has been a serious factual error – but then it often deals with matters where I don’t have first hand knowledge and cannot fact check. You clearly need a competent editor.
Michael Iger, not Walter and not Igor. And yes, Turley needs a proofreader.
The CEO is Robert “Bob” Iger
“Michael Iger, “
Wrong again. Idiot
Michael Eisner, former chairman and (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company through 2005.
LOL
You blew it Mhj
I can think of few things more stupid for my business than to alienate 50% of my customer base by mouthing an opinion with which they viscerally disagree. Those who have done this to their companies should be shown the door for business-malpractice. Quite honestly, it boggles my pea brain how anybody thinks this is a good idea.
Once they have everyone doing it by refusing loans and banking to those who resist, what will they care ?
That’s their known and public plan, at least a main and effective portion of it.
So they are going for the overall monopoly, and I’d say they are way past 75% and still heading up to 100%.