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UPDATE 6.5.23: Since Sen. Rand Paul wrote his letter back in April of 2021, Americans have been fighting back against woke corporations. “Go woke, go broke” has become more than just a catchy slogan of the right lately. Anheuser-Busch and Target have both suffered bad reactions to their “woke” marketing campaigns in recent weeks. Fox News’s Suzanne O’Halloran reports:
Recent high-profile and controversial marketing decisions by Target and Bud Light are backfiring and burning shareholders in the process to the tune of a combined $28 billion.
“These are both cases where brands have gotten in the middle of some really controversial issues,” said Timothy Calkins, associate chair of the marketing department at Northwestern Kellogg, in an interview with FOX Business. “I think we’ll see more brands be very cautious about getting into the middle of some of these really controversial issues.”
Bud Light’s gifting transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney a personalized pack of beer with the influencer’s likeness as part of an ad for the company’s March Madness contest and to celebrate the year anniversary since Mulvaney began identifying as a woman has cost Anheuser-Busch nearly $19 billion with shares down 14% amid nationwide boycotts of the beer and sales tanking. The S&P 500 has risen 2.5% over the same time period.
“It was pretty clear, with Bud Light, that decisions were made by the team working on the brand, but not by more senior executives. And so, there wasn’t really a line in there. I think in hindsight a team would say, you really don’t want to get involved in that controversial an issue. The problem is it just takes your brand into a space that it doesn’t need to be, and it just creates a lot of strong feelings about something that isn’t really related to the product or its brand,” Calkins observed.
Earlier this month, HSBC analyst Carlos Laboy cut the stock to a hold rating following the backlash and in a note to clients raised the following questions.
“Why did its US leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms? Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk? If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand? These questions are not trivial to the crisis and say a lot about the state of A-B’s marketing culture,” he wrote.
Target, which has supported LGBTQ Pride for years, this year offered merchandise that included female-style swimsuits that have the option to “tuck” male genitalia. Other products offered included ones labeled as “Thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions,” a “Gender Fluid” mug, and a variety of adult clothing with slogans such as “Super Queer” among other items.
Originally posted April 6, 2021.
In an email from Sen. Rand Paul, he tells readers it’s time to fight back against the woke left. He writes:
Dear Patriot,
Do you believe in free and fair elections?
Then Major League Baseball is prepared to boycott you — and conservatives everywhere.
According to the MLB, asking for an ID in order to cast a ballot is racist.
This is the same MLB that asks for an ID when you buy a ticket to a game.
But while the MLB attacks Americans fighting for voter integrity, they’re cozying up with the Chinese Communist Party overseas.
The same week that MLB announced they were pulling the All-Star Game out of Atlanta to boycott Georgia’s election security law, they signed a lavish new contract with Tencent — a media company owned by the Communist Chinese government.
That’s right — MLB would rather associate with the Chinese Communist Party than with conservatives like you.
In the eyes of Corporate America, being a conservative Republican is worse than being part of the genocide squad for a Communist regime.
Your sports league might be a little too woke if it will freely do business with Communists in China and Cuba, but boycotts a US state that wants people to show an ID to vote. #MLBAllStarGame #mlb
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 3, 2021
MLB seems to think that running concentration camps and cracking down on democratic protestors in Hong Kong is fine, so long as you don’t believe in Voter ID.
What’s worse — this isn’t even the first time MLB has pulled nonsense like this.
Curt Schilling, one of the most legendary pitchers of all time, has been kept out of the Hall of Fame because of his political views.
Just last year, former San Francisco Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff was disinvited from his team’s World Series reunion because his Twitter feed was deemed too right-wing.
And in December, the Cleveland Indians announced they would be changing their name, after receiving immense public pressure from Left-Wing activists.
This needs to end NOW.
I think I speak for many conservatives when I say we will not be beat up and disrespected by the media or Leftist corporations any longer.
It’s time to fight back.
If Major League Baseball does not want the business of conservative Republicans, we should not give it to them.
As I Tweeted in the wake of the news about the All-Star Game, “If MLB is boycotting states that pass Republican election integrity laws, maybe Republicans should boycott Major League Baseball?”
This radical Leftist ideology that the MLB is now parroting has infected nearly every institution of American life, and it is getting worse every day.
But it’s not just Major League Baseball — it’s virtually every major corporation, the entire university system, the mainstream media, and every government bureaucracy.
They have been taken over lock, stock, and barrel by the Woke Left.
I refuse to live under the thumb of radical Left-Wing activists. I am going to fight back with every fiber of my being. And so should you.
In Liberty,
Rand Paul
If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.
