A couple of quick hits before the main topic. In 1985 I saw Tina Turner perform at Wembley Arena in London. She died yesterday at the age of 83. Never a big fan of her music but she was a rock icon from my youth and it was a moment.
Ron DeSantis (pronounced, by Ron himself, as “DeeSantis”, not “DehSantis”) has officially joined the presidential race. As I wrote yesterday, I’d vote for him or Trump if either were the Republican nominee. Anyone other than Resident Flounder, or whomever the Democrats shove to the front.
Meanwhile, after the Bud Light fiasco, which is still ongoing, it’s come to light in rapid succession that a number of other brands across other categories are also diving deeply into LBGTQ+ promotions. Nike, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Mattel, Delta, Ben & Jerry’s, Converse, Coors, Google, NFL, Pepsi, Patagonia, Gillette, and now, Target — and many, many others — have embraced the LBGTQ+ agenda as proud supporters.
The latest, Target, is facing strong backlash for selling women’s bathing suits with “tuckable” space for men who pretend to be women.
Target has recently come under fire for its efforts to pander to the transgender community. Target stores nationwide recently unveiled their “Pride collection,” featuring a range of merchandise and clothing with trans-friendly slogans and books pushing radical leftist gender ideology. What makes this particularly troubling is the clothes, merchandise, and books are not exclusively aimed at adults but also young children and babies. They aren’t tucked away in a hard to find section either; these displays are prominently showcased at the front of Target stores.
Target, you may know already, has been pandering to the LGBTQ community for years. However, in the aftermath of the Bud Light controversy, Target started receiving enough backlash that the company held an emergency meeting last week. Several store locations, primarily in rural southern areas, have now been instructed to relocate and downsize their Pride sections—specifically to avoid a “Bud Light situation.”
“I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News Digital.
They should be terrified. But the truth is that a lot of these companies think this is a good business stratetgy, including Target’s CEO, Brian Cornell.
“I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand,” Cornell said. “The things we’ve done from a DE&I [diversity, equity, and inclusion] standpoint, it’s adding value.”
He added, “It’s helping us drive sales, it’s building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for our business today.”
That it’s a “great thing for [the] brand” is debatable and I can tell you that it is not “the right thing for society.” I’m with John Hinderaker over at Power Line who is also puzzled by the enthusastic embrace of radical sexual politics by our corporate class.
But “trans” clothing is not exactly the path to mass market success. How many women’s swimsuits with extra crotch room is Target going to sell? Six or seven?
More recently, leaks from Target indicate that the company is scrambling to contain the tsunami of disgust that its “Pride” campaign has generated.
More broadly, Hinderaker asks the question I’ve been asking: Why?
So, what is going on here? I don’t get it. We obviously are not dealing with traditional assumptions about corporate behavior. These companies are not appealing to a substantial customer segment. They evidently don’t mind incurring the puzzlement, if not wrath, of much of their customer base. They can’t possibly be profit maximizing, as economists tell us they do, and ought to do.
Some say that companies are being dominated by left-leaning HR and marketing departments. Maybe so. But HR departments don’t make decisions of this sort, and the normal assumption is that marketing departments are trying to market. That is, to maximize sales. These days, that doesn’t seem to be the case. And the worst offenders are often CEOs who have been hired as PR face men, not nuts and bolts managers.
He doesn’t get it, and neither do I. But something I recently read (and I can’t find it) said that big business needs loans, and loans come from banks. Banks are owned by larger entities that are big enough to withhold loans from companies that are not sufficiently “woke.” I have no idea if it’s true, but it sounds plausible.
So the suggestion is that companies prove their woke cred so they will be eligible for bank loans when they need them. Of course, many companies don’t need bank loans and are self-sufficient, which leaves the question, again: why?
With the number of big brand names embracing radical leftist gender nonsense, it may be difficult to boycott them all. Difficult, but not impossible. I’ve said it before, but we live with such abundance that we’ve been lulled into thinking that many of our “wants” are somehow “needs.” The truth is that we have very few non-negotiable needs. All we need is a little food, water, air and shelter. Maybe some clothes and transportation. Everything else is discretionary.
But living in a consumer culture, we are in the habit of mistaking wants for needs. Once we get that straightened out, it should be a no brainer to boycott Target and its merchandise. It shouldn’t be hard to ignore Bud Light. You really can do without a daily Starbucks.
Am I suggesting that you boycott them all? Yes — but I’m a realist. It will be hard to avoid conducting monetary transactions with companies that support woke ideologies in some form or another. Perhaps you simply be selective when you have the opportunity. I no longer buy Gillette razors, even though I had no complaints about the blades themselves (other than the cost!). But when they led with their “Toxic Masculinity” ad in 2019, thousands of men stopped buying their blades and it hurt their bottom line.
As Hinderaker says, leaving the gigantic companies presents an opportunity to support the little guys.
It is noteworthy that it is big business–Budweiser, Target, Nike and so on–that goes off the deep end. It is highly unlikely that the small businesses in your town are jumping on the “trans” bandwagon, or other leftist fads. They still care about their customers, and their owners are not so rich as to scorn profit.
Once you’ve boycotted the big guys, shop local.