Doritos fires trans brand ambassador over troubling tweets
Doritos has parted ways with a Spanish transgender activist following backlash to troubling tweets that emerged just days after he was announced as a brand ambassador.
The 24-year-old biological male singer with approximately 370,000 followers on Instagram, who goes by the name Samantha Hudson, drew attention earlier this week after going viral on X for resurfaced 2015 tweets stating he wanted "to do thuggish things to get into a 12-year-old girl's [expletive]," as reported by The Daily Mail.
The tweet has been deleted, but screenshots of them made their rounds on social media following a 50-second Doritos promo Hudson appeared in on Sunday titled "Crunch Talks."
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JUST IN: Doritos *fires* transgender activist Samantha Hudson just two days after hiring them, claims they were unaware that Hudson likes s*xually assaulting children.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 5, 2024
Are these marketing departments run by mor*ns?
Doritos is no longer working with Hudson after tweets surfaced… pic.twitter.com/ndi70toMub
"In the middle of the street in Mallorca in panties and screaming that I'm a nymphomaniac in front of a super beautiful 8-year-old girl," Hudson tweeted in another post translated from Spanish, as noted by The Daily Mail.
Hudson, whose real name is Iván González Ranedo, also reportedly mocked rape in a profanity-laden post, writing, "I hate women who are victims of rape and who turn to self-help centers to overcome their trauma. k fat wh****. Annoying sl**s."
The news prompted the hashtag #BoycottDoritos to trend, with some calling for a boycott of all Pepsico products because the American food giant owns Doritos.
Hudson expressed regret for the tweets he made at age 15, claiming they were made in jest and "were pure provocation and in very bad taste."
"I don't remember having written such barbarities," Hudson wrote, according to Rolling Stone. "At that time, I dedicated myself to saying nonsense, the heavier the better, because I thought that 'dark humor' was funny."
In an interview clip on Spanish television that resurfaced, Hudson also called "for the abolition to destroy and eliminate the traditional monogamous nuclear family," according to NBC News.
Doritos released a statement to Rolling Stone suggesting that Hudson's comments were unacceptable because they exhibited violence and sexism but made no mention of pedophilia and clarified that Hudson's gender identity played no factor in their decision.
"We have ended the relationship and stopped all related campaign activity due to the comments," a spokesperson for the Spanish division of the company told the outlet. "We strongly condemn words or actions that promote violence or sexism of any kind."
Rolling Stone and multiple other mainstream media outlets characterized Hudson's ouster from Doritos as the result of a right-wing, transphobic boycott campaign akin to that against Anheuser-Busch, which faced backlash last year for employing trans-identified TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney to represent Bud Light.
Shortly after news of Bud Light's collaboration with Mulvaney broke in 2023, the beer brand lost $1.4 billion in sales in 2023 after influential figures such as musician Kid Rock expressed disapproval. The rock star has since said he has forgiven them and its stock has risen again.
Retail giant Target also faced a significant sales slump last year after stoking outrage for selling satanic and transgender clothing such as "tuck-friendly swimsuits."
