In a move that will undoubtedly have major impacts in the advertising business, Coke will not advertise at all during this year’s Super Bowl game. Coke joins Audi in a complete absence. Pepsi and Budweiser will not advertise their flagship products. Anheuser-Busch has advertised its iconic Budweiser brand every year since 1983. Everyone who has watched the Super Bowls remembers the Clydesdales commercials.
What is this all about? The company spokespersons prattle on about looking at the market and evaluating where they are spending their advertising dollars. Perhaps that is just it. However, there are those in the industry who are opining that the single most watched event in American sports may be losing some of its luster.
NFL viewership has continued to decline. COVID restrictions have reduced in-person crowds and the athletes themselves have demonstrated an antipathy toward America that is turning off many fans. Super Bowl parties used to be all the rage. Not so much anymore.
Is this abandonment of the Super Bowl by these consumer giants proof that the world is beginning to reject all the bigoted, racist, illiberal Democrat trash that the media and their allies have been pushing on us for so long? At times many of us who value freedom, liberty and an unencumbered pursuit of happiness have probably felt that we are helpless against this onslaught. Is the pendulum starting to swing away from the fascist, science-denying, authoritarian social engineering the left has tried to shove down our throats?
According to the New York Post, the talk from insiders is that members of multiple boardrooms are finally coming to realize that they’re going to infuriate half the country no matter what they do. In the past, apparently offending half the country was OK. Turns out that they offended the half that actually buys their products, not those who want to get them for free.
Could it be that Coke, Audi, et al are the first to identify that they should be sticking to their core purpose? That would be providing a product or service that people want to purchase and use.
Bed, Bath and Beyond is finding out the hard way that wading into politics is bad for their business. Because Mike Lindell was a supporter of President Trump, they decided to stop carrying his MyPillow line. There was no other reason to do so. They tried to cover up the reason. However, most people knew they were simply trying to put a conservative Christian out of business.
The product is very popular. After Bed, Bath and Beyond announced this decision, their stock price dropped by more than a third. Oops. The public saw through their charade. Hopefully this will cause other companies who might have been contemplating jumping into political issues on the side of rabid leftists to think twice.
As Hrand Tookman over at LBA noted,
They’re consumer giants because they offer useful products or services. Never let them claim to be anything more than that socially, morally, politically or otherwise. Their purpose is profit. Their profit should be predicated on the quality of their goods and services. That they waded into the political and social arena is a reflection of the fascist, America-hating liberal mobs cry bullying them into submission. And now watching them get heckled to hell and back as they try to leave the Democrat plantation will be hilarious. But they will leave because they have to, and it appears they’re starting to realize that.
This process of consumer giants breaking away from the Left will not be quick, nor will it be pretty. One can expect “Cancel Culture” efforts to derail this breakup. But these companies need to do this and sooner rather than later. Once they do, they should stay out of politics and just focus their corporate efforts on satisfying the product and service needs of their customers.
The idea that silence is violence, a bully tactic of deranged leftists, is just stupid.