The Christian Post's top 10 stories of 2023 (part 1)
10. ‘Woke’ companies experience backlash for embracing LGBT agenda
In 2023, major corporations faced enormous backlash for embracing “woke” ideology. Beer brand Bud Light experienced pushback for partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, a trans-identified influencer known for documenting his purported gender transition from male to female in a TikTok series titled “Days of Girlhood.”
On April 1, Mulvaney took to Instagram to post a picture of customized Bud Light cans featuring the influencer’s face that the company sent him to celebrate his “first year of girlhood” and identified himself as a #budlightpartner. Shortly thereafter, Kid Rock filmed a video of himself firing an assault rifle at a stack of Bud Light cans in an empty field.
Country singer Travis Tritt followed by announcing that he was pulling all products made by Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, from his tour hospitality rider while country star John Rich signaled his intention to remove Bud Light from his Nashville-based bar Redneck Riviera.
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The backlash to Bud Light’s collaboration with Mulvaney extended beyond country music stars as the beer brand saw a 21% drop in its sales and $5 billion in losses in the weeks following the trans-identified influencer’s Instagram post.
Other major companies also faced blowback for collaborating with Mulvaney, including clothing company Nike and makeup manufacturer Maybelline. Later in the year, Maybelline once again found itself in the spotlight after it partnered with non-binary influencer Ryan Vita. With a full beard and long painted nails, Vita applied lipstick in a 30-second video published by Maybelline.
The retailer Target also faced backlash for selling a “tuck-friendly” girl's swimsuit that enabled trans-identified males to conceal their genitalia. Target also sold other LGBT-related merchandise ahead of so-called LGBT pride month, also known as the month of June. The company ended up losing $9 billion in stock value following the outrage over its promotion of the products. More recently, the chain of big box stores has faced calls for a boycott for selling LGBT-themed Christmas merchandise such as “gay Santas” and “pride nutcrackers.”
In response to backlash directed at Bud Light and other companies for embracing “woke” ideology, several alternatives emerged. Most notably, Ultra Right Beer presented itself as a direct competitor to Bud Light offering a “100% woke-free” product.
Maybelline’s partnership with Vita prompted the mobile application PublicSq to urge women to buy makeup from the cosmetic brand American Woman Beauty. PublicSq, which describes itself as “the largest values-aligned marketplace of pro-America businesses and consumers,” is an alternative to “woke” companies in and of itself that seeks to inform customers about local businesses that share their values.
After chocolate manufacturer Hershey partnered with a trans-identified male on International Women’s Day, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing unveiled “Jeremy’s Chocolates,” which sells products with titles that directly take a shot at its competitor’s embrace of gender confusion on International Women’s Day. Specifically, Jeremy’s Chocolates sells a “SheHer” candy bar and a “HeHim” candy bar, names that reflect the pronouns people use to self-identify their gender.
“One of them’s got nuts. If you need me to tell you which one it is, keep giving your money to Hershey’s,” Boreing said in the video unveiling his new product. Boreing’s comment reflects the fact that the term “nuts” is also slang for testicles. Therefore, the “HeHim” candy bar has nuts while the “SheHer” one does not.
Jeremy’s Razors, another line of products first launched by Boreing last year, emerged as an alternative to Harry’s Razors after the business cut ties with The Daily Wire when the conservative news site declared “boys are boys and girls are girls.” Over the summer, Harry’s Razors once again faced allegations of succumbing to woke ideology after a video featuring a trans-identified female using one of the company’s razor sets while prominently displaying a double mastectomy scar resurfaced.
Harry’s Razors partnered with the trans-identified female to promote the special edition set, all sales from which ended up going to the LGBT advocacy organization The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project promotes gender transition procedures for minors despite concerns about the long-term impacts that life-altering surgeries, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones have on trans-identified youth.
Ryan Foley contributed to this report.
