Taking Pride: the virtue signals of corporate America

Over the past few years, Pride Month has become a fixture of the US marketing calendar, said Danielle Wiener-Bronner on CNN – an opportunity for corporations to signal their progressive values.

But some may tread more cautiously this June, in light of a recent public backlash against supposedly “woke” initiatives. In April, right-wingers were furious when Bud Light used the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in its online marketing. Since then, sales of the beer have dropped by about a quarter, and the market value of its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, has fallen by about $26bn.

‘American consumers don’t like being lectured’

Last week, the retail giant Target came under attack for its Pride-themed range, which includes adult clothing with the slogan “Super Queer” and rainbow-branded children’s clothes. In response to widespread calls for boycotts and threats against its employees, Target felt obliged to withdraw some lines and make its Pride displays less prominent.

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When will firms learn that American consumers don’t like being lectured at, asked Jim Geraghty in National Review. It’s not the job of corporations to make us more accepting of transgender individuals, any more than it’s their job to warn us about North Korea’s intercontinental-missile programme.

I don’t like the boorish tone of some of the pro-boycott “Bud Lighting” campaigns, said Jonah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times. But if these rows result in firms stepping back from politics and concentrating on their core mission – building shareholder value – “America will be better for it”.

‘Self-interested decisions’

The idea that corporations are trying to push US culture in a more progressive direction is misplaced, said Greg Sargent in The Washington Post. These companies are making “self-interested decisions” in response to shifting consumer tastes and needs, as they always have.

Many companies reluctantly backed the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the gay rights movement in subsequent decades, for the same reason they now back Pride Month and Black Lives Matter: to reach new customers and strengthen the loyalty of their existing base. It’s all about money. The recent flurry of boycott campaigns is a “rearguard action” whipped up by right-wing activists and populist Republicans to stop a cultural evolution that is already under way. They’re winning some battles, but ultimately, they won’t win the war.