YETI is under fire this week after barring a conservative group from buying its product in a raw political stance. Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women (CBL) previously had cups made with its logo, but YETI now says that it was a mistake.
Kimberly Begg, the president of the northern Virginia-based organization told Fox Business that YETI suddenly cancelled its order for its signature seafoam mugs after the order was placed and after they paid $1,608.
She said that the use of the the phrase “conservative women” was on the “political aisle.”
A YETI spokesperson told Fox Business:
“Starting with our first customized Rambler® Drinkware in 2015, we’ve used our best efforts to create and adhere to a policy that prevents customizing products aligned with any political affiliations or organizations in addition to content that could be considered obscene, vulgar, profane, discriminatory, defamatory, or hateful.”
It is not clear how this policy has been applied and whether CBL was barred as political or hateful or other criteria. I am assuming that the word “conservative” triggered the response.
Even assuming that this is evenly applied, how is “political” defined? Does this mean that the Democratic party or pro-choice groups also are stuck with cold coffee?
There are plenty of “political” groups that buy YETIs that do not have “liberal” or “conservative” in their names. Many contribute to elections or engage in lobbying. A wide range of groups have “political affiliations or organizations.” These are generally not-for-profits engaged in free speech activities. Selling them a YETI cup is no more of an endorsement than their buying hats made by Custom Ink.
Would this order have been filled if it simply read “Clare Boothe Luce Center”? If so, this becomes a rather superficial policy.
The YETI policy seems hopelessly subjective and potentially . . . you guessed it . . . political.
How petty of them. There are a few equivalen products without a political filter. Thats where I am going RTIC. at RTICoutdoors.com.
Lots of drinkware choices.
You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometime you might get what you need…
I’ll be drinking my Bud Lite from out of my Yeti… NOT!
No you won’t . But say that if it makes you feel good
Had no inclination of buying one of their products in the first place. Now, I have a reason not to.
Sorry, professor, you haven’t supplied enough info for a neutral person to form an opinion on this one. Is there a left leaning org out there with the same claim of bias?
Why don’t you google it?
How about a YETI tumbler imprinted with the slogan “Orange Lies Matter” 🍊? What fun…
How about: “I have no idea who my ChiCom customers are” to honor the former truck driver who graduated with two degrees, at the top of his class, on a full pull scholarship?
Too long? Okay, instead, how about “My Son Did Nothing Wrong” or “Again, I Will Not Pardon My Son”.
What fun indeed!
The mug I’m drinking my coffee from says “Commie Tears, Hot or Cold”. And it isn’t an overpriced tumbler made by Yeti.
Or, his most famous line, “My Butt’s Been Wiped!”
I think you miss his point: YETI sells its product to non-conservative groups.
Who gives a flying ****!
I would definitely bar national populists from putting logos on my cups which is what this seems to be about. Conservatives I would welcome. Of course, conservatives are adrift right now since a rapist grifter incompetent a-hole took over the Republican party.
TDS is entirely treatable. Please seek competent psychiatric help.
TDS is entirely treatable. Please seek competent psychiatric help.
conservatives are adrift right now . . .
You just described the Democrat party, which has lost all levers of power and has no message other than being against whatever Trump does. Maybe that’s because they only stand for crazy shit, and the American people see it.
Seriously, what kind of party wants men pounding the crap out of girls and young women in competitive sports and invading their private spaces with male genitalia hanging out, thousands of rapists and murderers from other nations to be protected from deportation, and massive government waste and corruption? Right now, that’s the Dems, and the American public ain’t on their side.
Trump won all seven swing states, and the poor suckers in the Dem party don’t even have Roe v. Wade to dry their tears with – the overturning of which was supposed to guarantee decades of electoral victories.
OldManFromKS,
Well said and spot on. The only thing the Democrat party has is hate and rage.
Upstate – they have one more thing: projection, as vividly demonstrated by the comment I responded to.
BBBBUUUTTTTTT….. MUH TRUMP!!!! BBBUUUTTTTTT….. MUH TRUMP!!!!!! WHY AREN’T YOU LISTENING?????
Another one of the acolyte voters for the unindicted felon, President Daddy-Daughter Incest Showers, The Pedo in Chief and senior partner in Biden White House Crime LLC wants to assure us that he’s here from the Soviet Democrat Borg to explain to us what a-holes, perverts, criminals and grifters look like.
What’s the Oval Office House Plant who merched out his office in the White House to the ChiComs for $30 Million doing these days, now that he’s taken his loot and moved out?
Here is the problem. Yeti is a status symbol and that is why they get away with their high prices and no-so great coloring on products! Own a Yeti – you have money. It is a good product but with bias as theirs, I am glad to have them called out! Many people don’t care about their politics as long as they have a Yeti! Just imagine if Niki or Adidas said something like that! They would have to stop the gangs in the street to take back their sneakers! Yeti’s management has drunk their own marketing BS.
Why do I have a feeling Yeti will reverse course, and then millions of people who had never heard of the brand (like me) will now be aware of it and have seen pictures of their product? IOW, Yeti gets millions worth of advertising for free.
It is free advertising, but it was the best for keeping coffee hot. Over ten years ago, my son gave one to my wife as a present; otherwise, I wouldn’t have known what it was. It seems different generations have their favorites.
People focus too much on what others buy, and that focus increases with cancel culture. This puts private companies in a bind.
Why would they reverse course – they’ve done this before a few years ago, publicly attacking gun owners and the Second Amendment, while a lot of gun owners are hunters, campers, etc that would be one of their larger markets for their coolers and other products. They didn’t suffer from it.
The difference between this and Budweiser’s Chick With A Dick On A Beer Can, is you notice that beer can when it’s one of the choices looking at you from the shelves of a supermarket. When Yeti decides NOT to make something, you don’t notice they’ve prevented having it among the inscribed products they sell.
The local Cabelas, Murdochs, etc here in Montana, full of handguns, AR15s, reloading supplies, etc has lots of Yeti coolers and coffee cups on display – their sales won’t suffer simply because people willing to spend the money to buy a Yeti won’t be aware of this.
Frankly, even if Yeti were putting “Second Amendment!” or “MAGA!” on their products, I still wouldn’t buy a Yeti. About 30% of the price tag is the customer paying for the name ‘Yeti’ on the product, and there are very similar products built just as well for much less money.
For those who wouldn’t buy Yeti due to the price, it’s hard to boycott what you wouldn’t buy in the first place. Just the same as boycotting light beer you wouldn’t buy in the first place….
Maybe, Maybe not. As others noted – Yeti is a prestige product. It is not a mass market product like Bud light.
It is likely this will piss off conservatives and cost them market share. But it will appeal to the woke who will flock to Yeti
The net could be negative, neutral or positive.
There are lots of brands out there that go out of their way to apeal to a specific segment of the market and are very successful.
Such as Black Powder Coffee.
If you are a major maker of toilet paper you had better not pi$$ anyone off – your product is mass market and easily substituted.
But rising standard of living actually means MORE choices in products – not less.
AGAIN – just go through the grocery aisle of any grocery story. You can find fair trade, gluten free, organic, Kashi grown by indiginous people in columbia.
You can express your political views, your ecological views you environmental leanings, whatever values and your food preferences in your breakfast purchases.
Look at what has happened to coffee int he past 40 years ?
There is room in the Market for Yeti and RWB (Red White and Blue) prestige cups.
I do not wish to predict what will happen,
And unlike Prof. Turley, I do not care.
Let Free markets work.
Get the dirty little fingers of governmetn out of funding and subsidizing everything, and if you want to buy Woke cups – then go for it.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with buyers seeking out products that express their values – including political ones.
Further the ability to do so is a giant indicator of a high standard of living.
Again Cofffee. Coffee was huge when I was young – and you had something like 3 choices.
Today you can order “Double Cappuccino – half-caf, non-fat milk, with just enough foam to be aesthetically pleasing but not so much that it leaves a moustache.”
More than a decade ago the Swedes did a study of Organic farming. They found it does not produce better food, it significantly increases costs, and it is harder on the land – as well as a long list of other negatives.
Should we ban organic farming ? h311 no. If people want to pay more for a product produced organically – and if they think it is a better product – who cares ?
Turley often makes posts criticizing truly private “censorship”.
But the FACT is that if it is truly private – it is NOT censorship – it is a form of expression.
There is a reason that the first amendment applies to Government.
The purpose of free markets is to give us the maximum freedom to express OUR choices and values.
Those values can be about the quality of the product or its cost, but they can also be about politics.
I do not personally give a Schiff about DEI – what I care about is that it is all too often government mandated.
DEI is discrimination, it is racial discrimination, it is myriads of other forms of discrimination – and people must be free to discriminate as the please.
Discrimination is just another word for choice or the expression of our values.
If a company wishes to refuse to higher blacks and that bothers you – boycott them.
If they chose to hire an entire rainbow – you can chose to boycott them or recommend them to your friends.
The problem with Dylan Mulvaney on Bud light was that AHB tried to appeal to a new market while pissing off a significant portion of its core market.
I do not care about DEI and Schools and Colleges – so long as there is no GOVERNMENT in schools and colleges.
I would prefer that all schools and colleges were private and paid for by students and parents and therefore answerable to parents.
But if we must stupidly have governmen pay for education – then give the funds directly to parents to spend on the education of their kids as the Parents choose.
The department of educations budget is enough to get $5000/year to every K-12 student in the country.
Catholic Elementary education today is a bit more than 2500/student. There is an excellent menonite HS in my community that costs 7500/yr.
No school lunch programs, no subsidies for the arts or after school or …..
Just give the money directly to the parents and let them spend it on the education of their kids as they please.
I would note that some european countries – that the left loves like Sweden do exactly this.
What will the results of this be ? Education will transform from One Size fits all MaxwellHouse education into Dunking Donuts and Starbucks, and Tully’s and ….
And if some schools wish to fixate on the Bible or the Koran or gender studies, or the panoply of DEI – who cares ? You get to choose where to send your kids.
It is posts like this that demonstrate Turley is a partisan and does not believe the free speech shtick he is peddling. A true free speech lover would recognize that the company has the free speech to decline to make any custom cup and would be happy that they are able to take a political stance that is unpopular.
You expect consistency from Trump lovers? LOL.
You expect your fellow pedophiles and groomers from the Soviet Democrat Borg like Franke to do anything OTHER than virtue signal in hopes of keeping up with the virtue signaling of Yeti?
Speaking of pedophiles and groomers, what’s the Oval Office House Plant doing with that $30 Million he grifted from the ChiComs from his White House office, now that he’s moved out.
I do expect MAGAs to spew the word vomit like you just did.
What is the biggest woodshed in the US?
“It is posts like this that demonstrate Turley is a partisan and does not believe the free speech “
Where did Turley say companies didn’t have the right to make a cup of their choice? You are focused so intensely on your ideology, you cannot read or think straight.
Franke hasn’t figured out yet why The Oval Office House Plant and his DEI Hire Border Czar that she voted for lost the election to Trump! Franke is virtue signalling here even harder than Yeti is!
It’s posts like this which illustrate Franke is a Marxist Useful Idiot, cosplaying as being unaware this isn’t about free speech – it’s pointing out the rage of communists like her, denizens of the Soviet Democrat Borg, so enraged they’re LOSING, that they’ll reject profits to virtue signal to their shareholders.
Franke: tell us where in Professor Turley’s column you read where Professor Turley said this violated First Amendment rights!
I hear Dylan Mulvaney’s face will be on the new Yeti Beer Steins.
GEB,
HA! Good one!
Aiming….aiming……aiming….BANG! A perfect shot to the foot, YETI!!!!!!!!
Actually, they shot themselves in the head, because their foot was in their mouth when they pulled the trigger.
During Trumps first term we could afford to buy a $25 YETI cup to show people “See! I have money, too!” Now it is the WalMart “Ozark Trail” $4.99 knock off.
Yeti is yesterday and over.
More of the famous leftist tolerance we keep hearing about.
And what is disturbing are the leftists that think this is ok.
Let some vendor refuse to fill an order for BLM or Planned Parenthood and see what happens.
antonio
Fill what order?
Hey AMERICA, you have everything you need to know about YETI – HATE and Politics (particularly conservative) are equally AWFUL to the Company Elitists! NEVER BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS AGAIN until an apology to AMERICA is loud and proud!! And I will share my perspective with at least 10 people! I hope YETI circles the drain in a few years!
I wouldn’t trust their apologies, since they have no moral compass and their actions, therefore, will always be suspect.
NEVER have heard of them. Won’t get my business!
Boycott is the best way to punish bad actors. Yeti, Target, Budweiser, the list goes on. Boycott is a fundamental right.
Advocating for a boycott is clearly protected speech. The act of boycotting by witholding support, verbal or monetary, by an individual is completely legal.
That is why I cannot understand why courts have supported states requiring oaths to not boycott vertain parties before becoming eligible for contracts. Regardless of your position on an issue that seems radically unconstitutional.
Now tell me that if a boycott is discriminatory it is illegal. Wrong.
Let Yeti go the way of Bud Lite…go woke, go broke. But we are truly seeing the seething hate within the minds (I won’t reference their hearts as I am not sure about their existence) of an indoctrinated army of tools; a jihadi force willing to do whatever is indicated in order to stay true to their cult-obsessed minds.
No matter. Yeti has been out for a while. Stanley is in 😉