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Attacks against companies for their inclusion in the LGBTQ+ community have forced companies to try to strike a balance between expressing values or risking backlash — even violence — from a small but vocal portion of their customer bases.
As boycotts transcend social media-fuelled outrage, companies like Anheuser BushAnd Goal And Disney It faces months-long public relations issues that lead to losses in market share, changes in the executive group, legal battles and even threats to employees. In some cases, companies have angered conservative customers by marketing to LGBTQ+ consumers or criticizing laws targeting them—only to face backlash from more liberal shoppers for attempts to appease those who disapproved of the brand.
Boycotts usually have little impact on a company’s bottom line, according to the experts who track them. The backlash against Bud Light has hurt hard because there are similar alternatives to light beer, constant media coverage has encouraged boycotts, and the company has not developed a unified strategy, said Anson Frakes, who spent more than a decade as president. Sales and distribution at Anheuser-Busch.
For companies like Target and Disney, it’s not clear if boycotts will hurt sales. Even if the companies suffered no financial damage from the backlash, the increasingly violent resistance to LGBTQ+ marketing has jeopardized the corporate merger efforts that have become popular in recent years.
The wave of backlash across the country, which has disproportionately targeted transgender people, has affected large companies with a liberal reputation. represents the union Starbucks Dozens of the chain’s locations don’t allow employees to decorate for Pride Month in June — including at least one instance where workers were told of violence in response to Target’s Pride merchandise that raised safety concerns, baristas said. The company said it has not changed any policy on decor and is encouraging stores to celebrate Pride Month.
In recent years, LGBTQ+ inclusion has been “standard business practice,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD. But the practice has become more complicated amid an “extremely aggressive legislative session” as hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills — targeting transgender rights and how sexual orientation and gender identity are taught in schools, among other topics — have been introduced by lawmakers across the US. nation.
Despite mounting headlines and constant criticism of Pod Lite, corporate boycotts are “overblown” and those offended by Pride Month-related campaigns are “the minority,” Ellis said. And in a separate interview with “Squawk Box” Thursday, she said hundreds of companies, including Nike, The North Face and Walmart, are still running Pride campaigns in the face of pressure from “extremists.”
She also noted that opposition to Anheuser-Busch’s reaction to the boycott—including decisions by some gay bars not to carry Bud Light—had slowed sales more than the initial conservative reaction.
Bud light seems to be out of the ordinary
In April, the brewer ran a March Madness promotion with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who shared a custom Bud Light can on Instagram. Soon, anti-trans politicians and celebrities called for a boycott of Al-Bireh.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth I apologize for the disagreement By claiming that his company “never intended to be part of a discussion that would divide people”. But his statement didn’t advocate the partnership with Mulvaney and didn’t seem to placate conservative critics of the brand — adding pressure across the political spectrum. Two marketing executives – Alyssa Heinsreid and Danielle Blake – have been placed on involuntary leave following their roles in the partnership.
The boycott led to Anheuser-Busch losing business to a degree rarely seen after the online backlash. Bud Light saw double-digit sales drop weekly, losing its spot as the best-selling beer in the US for the month of May, according to an analysis by Bump Williams Consulting using NielsonIQ data.
Shares of Anheuser-Busch have also fallen about 15% since the promotion with Mulvaney.
The Bud Light boycott, while an exception in many ways, underscores a larger struggle American companies face as they navigate an increasingly polarized social landscape where holding political office, or even engaging in cross-cultural marketing, can be taboo for some customers, said Frakes. . .
“Anheuser-Busch has lost sight of its customer,” said Frikes, who left the company last year and now works at Strive, an asset management firm that has been critical of ESG investment platforms. “A brand like Bud Light is a brand that was not political before, but is now being shunned by customers on the right, who see this partnership as a highly politicized position they have taken, as well as customers on the left who don’t feel supported amid the backlash.” .
Fricks said that the company’s leadership initially “underestimated” the seriousness of the situation and its subsequent decision not to advocate for the promotion.
Anheuser has paid to win back its customers left and right. The company said it still supports initiatives to support LGBTQ+ Americans.
“We remain committed to the programs and partnerships we’ve built over decades with organizations to drive economic prosperity across a number of communities, including the LGBTQ+ community,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. “Recently, we shared that our partnership with (the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) to empower LGBTQ+-owned small businesses across America will continue for a second year.”
During a panel discussion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week, Marcel Marcondis, global chief marketing officer at Anheuser-Busch, described this pivotal moment in the marketing industry.
“When things get so divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call for all of us marketers to be very humble,” Marcondis said.
Brands are facing a backlash
Pride Month merchandise is on display at a Target store on May 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
And it’s not just Bud Light — brands across the board are facing calls to boycott their goods or services. Although no other company has shown to have taken the financial hit that Anheuser-Busch has suffered, the backlash has in some cases limited the LGBTQ+ inclusion that has become popular in recent years.
In recent months, other companies have been caught in the crosshairs of Pride Month campaign criticism such as Kohl’s, Nike, Adidas, Jack Daniel’s, Ford, and Chick-fil-A. None of these companies appeared to suffer any financial consequences, or to pull LGBTQ+ marketing campaigns.
Last month, Target announced that it would remove certain LGBTQ-themed items from shelves after what a company spokesperson described as “threats” to employees across an array of Pride Month merchandise.
Through a spokesperson, Target declined to say which merchandise it pulled from shelves or share details of the incidents that led to its decision. The Associated Press previously reported that the merchandise includes “tuck-friendly” swimwear that allows trans people who haven’t had gender confirmation surgeries to hide their private parts.
While the big box retailer hasn’t seen sales slump due to a backlash in the same way that Bud Light did, the targeted boycott has implications beyond the brand or its finances, because employees are being harassed, said Lawrence Glickman, a professor of American studies at the University of Michigan. Cornell and author of Purchasing Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America.
Glickman said Target’s boycott is “unusual about how consumer boycotts have operated in the past” because of its “aggressive, confrontational style” and “regulators who bind workers to company policies over which they have no say.”
He warned that Target’s decision to pull its Pride merchandise “will encourage these boycotters to possibly confront other companies using the same tactics, or to return to Target if they see something else they don’t like.”
Another aberration has come in the form of The Walt Disney Company, which has stood firm against a prolonged anti-LGBT movement in Florida.
Not only is Disney pushing back on calls to boycott its theme parks, but it’s also raising a legal battle against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom the entertainment giant accuses of punishing him for denouncing a state law that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Like Me.” The measure restricts education for LGBTQ+ subjects in state public schools.
The ongoing legal dispute does not appear to affect preference in the state’s Disney World parks, according to data from Morning Consult Brand Intelligence.
Morning Consult has determined that Republican poll respondents have a less favorable view of Disney than Democrats do. But she also found that there was no partisan divide among the company’s park visitors.
“This suggests that while Disney has become a major player in Florida’s culture wars, its guests are less interested in brand politics than the general public,” according to Lindsey Ruschke, travel and hospitality analyst for Morning Consult.
In fact, the theme parks were a bright spot for Disney during its most recent quarterly earnings report. The company’s Gardens, Experiences & Products division saw revenue increase 17% to $7.7 billion. About $5.5 billion of that revenue came directly from the theme park sites.
“Had Disney not cared so much about diversity internally, I think they would have caved in and done what Florida politicians asked of them,” said Brayden King, a senior researcher of consumer activism at Northwestern University.
“But for them, these are issues that really matter who they are, their identity, their culture, their employees, and even how their products are currently marketed,” King added. “They see themselves as a global brand, not just a Florida brand.”
Pride under pressure
Shoppers carry bags across a rainbow-themed pedestrian crossing.
David Cliff | Norphoto | Getty Images
GLAAD’s Ellis said companies are walking a tightrope as they try to court a society that tends to have high rates of disposable income, responsiveness to personalized advertising and brand loyalty — but that it has also become the target of a firestorm of legislative attacks and cultural criticism.
Celebrities and conservative consumers seem to cling to the political targeting of LGBTQ+ people and endanger community inclusion.
But GLAAD and other groups are taking steps to ensure companies don’t give up on their spread.
GLAAD, along with over 100 other groups, He wrote a letter to Target last month Encouraging the retailer to reject and speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ extremism during Pride Month. Ellis said she has advised more than 200 corporate partners who were “surprised” by the hostility.
“Whether it’s Target or Bud Lite, companies have been very supportive of our community for decades and they’ve never seen this kind of hostility,” Ellis said. “But they must not retreat now and must advance with pride.”
GLAAD also announced Thursday that more than 50 companies such as Cisco, Intel, Pfizer and Salesforce have signed a commitment to “reject harassment and bullying from LGBTQ communities and support companies that try to serve everyone in a safe and inclusive way.”
In a “Squawk Box” interview Thursday, Ellis urged the companies to continue to stand their ground if they want to support the LGTBQ+ community and the business that comes with these efforts.
“Our community and allies talk about our dollars, and we didn’t want to support a company that didn’t support us when the going got tough,” Ellis said.
— CNBC’s Melissa Rybko, Sarah Witten, and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.
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