WisconsinChristianNews.com Volume 25, Issue 3 Companies Tone Down ‘Pride Month’ To Escape Backlash Page 19
By Suzanne Bowdy, The Washington Stand June 2024 It wasn’t that long ago that the mainstream media mocked conservatives for trying to flex their con- sumer muscle. Not anymore. A year removed from the Bud Light fiasco that sparked a thousand boy- cotts, even USA Today is admitting — the grassroots strategy worked. LGBT Pride, at least as a wholesale business concept, is dead. For companies brave (or foolish) enough to test Americans’ outrage in 2024, one thing is for certain: there’s no pot of gold at the end of this June’s rainbow. To most CEOs’ surprise, the wave of national fury over trans activism hasn’t just remained steady over the past 14 months — it’s exploded in strength and scope. The firepower that consumers have un- leashed against brands like Target, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Disney, Planet Fitness, and others have put companies on defense at a time of year when they’re used to passing the Left’s annual test of LGBT loy- alty. Now, thanks to painful pushback that’s crashed stocks and sales, the conversations in those corpo- rate board rooms have dramatically changed. Instead of, “How can we maximize our visibility on Pride?” the question has become, “What can we do to show our support without burning consumer bridges?” The result, USA Today’s Jessica Guynn points out, is a much more muted June than years past. “Expect fewer rainbow logos for LGBTQ Pride Month,” she warned. Strategists like Matt Skallerud of Pink Media, who’s entire job is helping brands reach the LGBT demographic, says he used to be “pretty busy work- ing on Pride projects.” “I can tell you for myself,” he admitted, “I have not been — and I think it’s across the board.” If the goal was to make “Pride” toxic for brands, as conservative Matt Walsh urged, then mis- sion accomplished. Even Skallerud concedes that displays like Target’s “tuck” swimwear and chest binders are a thing of the past for now. “Nobody in the media, marketing, and advertising world wants to admit how heavy and hard this has been,” he said. “Ever since Target and Bud Light had their fiascos last year, a tremendous num-
ber of brands have decided it would be much better to sit on the sidelines and let this sort itself out.” This modest approach to Pride Month probably won’t sit well with the architects of sexual radicalism. Already, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has wit- nessed a stunning drop in the number of companies who earned 100% on their Corporate Equality Index. In 2023, after Dylan Mulvaney’s corporate partner- ships poisoned the profit well, 297 businesses scaled back their LGBT advocacy, losing their perfect score. Now, GlobalData’s Neil Saunders told Guynn, brands are in a pickle. “If you promote Pride, some people will be unhappy with it. If you don’t promote Pride, some people will be unhappy about that. It’s not a battle you can win completely, which is why some retailers and brands are taking a middle-of-the-road approach and keep- ing it moderate,” Saunders pointed out. “They are doing some promotion but they are restricting it to things that they think are palatable and acceptable for most people.” And that’s not going to change any time soon, he warned. “Retailers and brands will be more cautious about how they promote issues and causes.” Of course, there are those, like the pigheaded Levi Strauss, who’d rather fall on their rainbow swords than give an inch on their political agenda. “This year’s Pride collection marks ten years that the Levi’s brand has been celebrating Pride with products, mar- keting and a $100,000 USD donation to Outright In- ternational, a global organization working to advance human rights for LGBTQ+ people all over the world. We are excited about this year’s collection and our plans to engage consumers,” they announced. Woke Wells Fargo joined their suicide mission, stubbornly declaring, “Our plans this year are not scaled back; we have celebrated Pride Month in the past and will continue in the future.” Even Walmart, who should’ve learned from Target to leave well enough alone, tweeted its excitement about the com- pany’s new Pride collection. According to polling, they’re in for a bumpy ride. The latest Axios/Harris survey of U.S. businesses un- covered a huge swing in how left-leaning brands
were viewed. “Nearly two-thirds of the companies in this year’s survey saw their total reputation quotients decline. That figure,” Axios explains, “represents how a brand ranks across seven attributes: trust, charac- ter, ethics, vision, citizenship, growth and products and services.” Forty-four percent of Americans said their overall opinion of companies fell — especially those “overly focused on diversity, equity, and inclu- sion.” On the other hand, brands that stayed out of the cultural controversy or “traditionally conservative- leaning brands” saw “sizeable gains in corporate rep- utation.” Businesses like Hobby Lobby, Subway, the Trump Organization, Fox Corporation, and others got a big bounce in approval from a country fed-up with leftist politics. Clearly, Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema said, Americans “are more picky this year and holding companies to account.” “Washington Watch” guest host and former Con- gressman Jody Hice is thrilled that corporations are finally counting the cost of their social extremism. Watching brands like Target walk back their in-your- face extremism this summer shows that grassroots Americans are winning. “There's been significant backlash — not only on a personal level of consumer boycotts,” he pointed out on Wednesday’s show, “but states [have] even divested from funds like Black- rock” over their woke ESG agendas. That’s a significant sea change, 1792 Exchange President Paul Fitzpatrick agreed. “As we know, his- torically, corporations had close relationships with Republicans and the Right, kind of working for lower taxes and favorable regulations. And that happened for a long, long time.” But for the last 20 years, there’s been “the marriage of Wall Street’s desire to make money, and the Left’s desire to use corporations to impose policies on the American people that they can’t get passed legislatively.” For a while, he pointed out, “it worked well. Every- body got what they wanted. ... Wall Street folks were making a lot more money. The activists were getting policies forced down the throats of customers and employees and manipulating capital markets from corporations — a lot of it coming from the big asset
managers Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard. And they really were kind of running unimpeded.” But by 2021, states started pushing back. “You saw state legislatures coming in and saying, ‘We are not going to do business... with companies that are boy- cotting our core industries [like fossil fuels].’ ... That has forced the big asset managers to change their tune. They’re not talking about ESG in the same way they were. Many of them are calling it a dirty word. In essence, Larry Fink of Blackrock, who’s really the godfather of pushing this [is backing away from that messaging]. ... And so it’s been encouraging to see people wake up.” Now, thanks to Bud Light and so many other casu- alties of excessive Pride, Americans have started to realize how much power they have to change the cor- porate landscape. Eighty percent of marketing exec- utives are now nervous about how to play these divisive issues, Vox reports. And they should be. Only 20% of the country is now “interested in corporations taking a stand on political issues or current events.” The arc of consumerism is back to a Switzerland mentality, where woke advocacy is too great a risk, Michael Serazio insists. “Activism ain’t selling like it used to.” And look, Fitzpatrick pointed out, “We want Amer- ican corporations to be very profitable, but we want them to focus on producing good products and serv- ices, not on political [advocacy].” As Doug Zanger, an industry expert told Vox, “These are thorny, real- life issues that I honestly don’t think [companies] need to take a stand against. If I’m a brand manager that’s selling soap, I don’t know why I would bother.” At the end of the day, consumers aren’t asking for a lot. This isn’t about Starbucks selling MAGA hats or Doritos clamoring for a border wall. All Americans want is neutrality. The assurance that when they shop for mouthwash, they aren’t hit over the head with an agenda that wants to neuter their children or groom them for RuPaul’s Drag Race. In a world where even fast food has become a middle-class lux- ury, the only political cause every family cares about is inflation. Maybe now, brands are recognizing what they once did: value — not values — is what matters.
Depressed People Of the Bible: Suicidal Elijah
By Jeff Zaremsky June 2024 One aspect of Elijah’s depression was his wish that
and not what God can do and is doing in and through our lives.
loving me.” For the abilities it could be as simple as: “I thank God that He has given me the ability to boil water, or digest food,” or it can be as deep as: “I am thankful God has given me the ability to be a blessing to so and so.” For those who are depressed, this may take prayer and the power of God to accomplish, but it will be tremendously helpful. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Psalm 100:4). Learn more about Elijah, and other depressed people of the Bible in the book “De- pressed People of the Bible,” available where most books are sold. Author’s Disclaimer: The information I will be sharing is not intended for diagnosis or treatment of depres- sion. It is a biblical reflection on people throughout the Scriptures who dealt with depression and how God carried them through it to healing and purpose.
God would just take his life; he wished that he was dead. In a sense, like Moses and Jonah, he was suicidal. If God had granted Elijah’s prayer, or if Elijah had car- ried out his wish on his own, the people whom God had Elijah minister to would not have been reached through Elijah.
When we are struggling with suicidal thoughts, the devil will also be telling us that no one else cares about us, but that is not reality; yet when we are in the midst of it and totally focused on our- selves, we are blinded to see all the care that people are showing toward us. And cer- tainly God cares. When, by
God’s grace, we pull our eyes off of ourselves and think about how this will affect God and how it will affect others, we will better be able to turn away from the trapdoor.
What I am going to write next might seem very shocking and I don’t want it to be taken in a negative way. I understand that suicide is a very sensitive issue, but it needs to be addressed. I know that many people carry deep hurts in their hearts from their own attempted suicide or the suicide of someone they love. So please don’t take these next words as a put- down of those who have attempted suicide or who have committed suicide. The purpose of this next ob- servation is to help us realize what the door is that can allow us to contemplate and even do the un- thinkable. When we are able and willing to see this trapdoor for what it is, we will better be able to avoid it. Ready, here it comes: In a very real sense, in many cases, suicide is one of the most selfish acts a person can commit. The reality is that when we are tempted by the devil to commit suicide, we are only thinking of ourselves and not about how it will affect all those around us. He gets us thinking, “At least the pain will go away,” “The troubles will all be gone,” “I won’t have to deal with it anymore,” “I’m no good,” “No one loves me or cares about me,” etc. Self is the center of all of those thoughts. Yes, our pain might be gone, but what about the pain this action will inflict upon oth- ers? Yes, we will not have to deal with the troubles we are going through, but most likely someone else will have to pick up the pieces. A thought such as, “I can’t do anything,” is filled with pride. “I” is still the focus. It is not biblical humility to say, “I can’t do anything,” it is a satanic lie that focuses on ourselves
Every time an early death takes place, others are affected. We might not know who those people are.
They may not even be part of our lives at the moment. They could be people who know people who would be affected by our death or people we would have met later on if we hadn’t committed suicide. Everything has a ripple effect. God has a purpose for each one of us. The devil will deny that fact to us, and we may not know what that purpose is right now, but it is the truth — God has a purpose for you. You are special, you are impor- tant to Him. The only way to find out what that purpose is to its full extent, is to continue to live and let God play it out in our lives. An attitude of gratitude can greatly en- hance our outlook and dramatically im- prove our attitude. A great assignment to do is to write down one thing each day that you are thankful for, and one talent that God has given you the ability to do. Each day it should be something that is not already on the lists. It could be as simple as: “I am thankful I have 10 fin- gers,” or as deep as: “I thank You God for
Defeat Depression! with ‘Depressed People Of The Bible’
The new book by author Jeff Zaremsky
Get your copy today. Available wherever good books are sold, including My Pillow’s MyStore.com, BAM, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com or order from your local Christian bookstore!
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