Bud Light sales have dropped dramatically since the Dylan Mulvaney controversy, and now Target is taking steps after its over-the-top pride month/LGBTQ products caused backlash nationwide. The boycotts — and YOUR stance against both companies — are working. But will this actually last?! Typical boycotts usually don’t see longterm effects, but resistance from Americans in these two situations may be different. Glenn and Stu discuss what makes today's Bud Light & Target backlash different and what MUST happen to truly make a long-lasting difference…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I'm going to tell the story here, of Target. Now, it came out in the New York Post.
Just a couple of days ago. Target's top executive dismisses the social media uproar over the retailer's new line of LGBTQ friendly kid's clothing. Outraged shoppers have posted videos and images on social media, showing bathing suits, that offer an extra crotch coverage, as well as rainbow-colored onesies for infants and children.
Other offerings that raise conservative haggles, include T-shirts that say Pride Adult Drag Queen.
Trans people will always exist. Girls, gays, theys. So in the podcast last week for Fortune, called Leadership Next, the CEO of -- of Target, Brian Cornell, was asked about the backlash to woke capitalism.
And specifically about Budweiser and Disney. He said, you know, I think these are just good business decisions. And it's the right thing to do for society. And it's a great thing for our brand. The things we've done from a D, E, and I -- diversity, equity, and inclusion standpoint. It's adding value. It's helping us drive sales. It's building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for business today.
Spokesperson for the company told the Associated Press, the tuck-friendly swimsuits are only offered now in adult sizes. Kid's collection does not feature the label.
STU: Oh, that's great.
GLENN: Oh, that's nice.
Yeah, when we think about purpose at Target, he said. It's really about helping all the families. And the word all is very important.
Most of America shops at Target. So we want to do the right thing that supports families across the country. I know that the focus on diversity and inclusion and equity, has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.
Huh. So it was -- last week, the story was. They're going to stick to their guns. Well, Target came out yesterday, Tuesday, and said, the retail giant is going to pull some of its LGBTQ-friendly kid's clothing from its stores, after facing customer backlash.
Just days after the company's top executive dismissed the social media uproar, the Minneapolis-based chain said, one of the main factors in the nationwide adjustment, ahead of Pride Month, was because some customers had become violent with workers.
Well, I hope that that is not true, and if that is happening, I don't want anything to do with that.
STU: Any of it. If you were to harass a Target employee, violently over clothing.
GLENN: You're an idiot.
STU: Of any sort. But still, this is what they always say.
GLENN: Yeah, I know. So I don't know if I believe anything.
STU: Yeah, they always say, we've had death threats. They have always said. The death threat thing is particularly comical for anyone who happens to be in AM talk radio.
GLENN: Yeah. Suck it up, buttercup. Jeez.
Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team member's sense of safety and well-being, while at work, said the Target spokesperson.
Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plants, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.
Target declined to say whether it would remove the tuck-friendly women's swimsuits that allow trans women.
They're men, who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their junk.
My words, not theirs. One of the LGBTQ brands being pulled, however, is Aprallen (phonetic), which makes T-shirts, sweatshirts, bags. Mainly because, you know, it's a cult, and Satanic-themed.
LGBTQ features and stuff. I mean, I don't know. Criticism has been widespread, Target spokesperson said.
Folks are reaching out with feedback. While some are sharing it with constructive criticism. They disagree with product decisions that we have made. Target shares were down, 3 percent yesterday. At closing.
So it's good for their brand. Good for their brand.
No. Actually not good. You are the beginning to have an effect.
You -- anyone -- anyone that you know that is like, let's go and tear it down.
Tell them they're a moron.
You're beginning to win!
Already, ESG -- any ESG fund is way down.
They're not introducing -- they're introducing half of the number of funds, than they did last year.
That's because you're winning.
Now you have Budweiser on the ropes. I mean, have you heard the ads from one of the local bottling companies in Alabama.
Did an ad. And they're -- it's a really bad ad. But it's like, we're sorry. We don't have anything to do with this.
We have nothing to do -- we're all local people just like you. We disagree.
We have nothing to do with this.
But it's getting -- it's bad.
STU: I think this is a really fascinating case study. The whole Bud Light thing.
And I think the Target thing is rising to that level as well.
In which, I don't know exactly how these things work. Or how you do them, or how you make them happen.
You know, we were talking about this a little off-air the other day. Obviously, Miller Lite is one of the big alternatives for Bud Light. I swear Bud Light is the one -- this is Sara Gonzales' point which I'm stealing, but I swear Bud Light leaked the Miller Lite ad because it was old.
GLENN: Oh, sure they did. I'm sure they did.
STU: But Miller Lite is the alternative. Right? But then they were doing this too.
Now, of course, Coors is -- owns Miller Lite. So Coors Light and Miller Lite are in on all this stuff too.
And Michelob Ultra also released an ad a while ago, that had a transgender athlete that we just all missed. I don't even know what happened.
GLENN: That's okay.
I don't care who teaches everybody a lesson, somebody needs to teach -- be taught the lesson.
STU: And that's what's fascinating here.
Maybe that's the answer. Because you really can't boycott everybody that does things that you don't like. It wouldn't even be consistent with capitalism to boycott everyone that disagrees with you.
GLENN: It's not even possible.
STU: It's not possible in this society. It's also not consistent with the principles of capitalism. Like, you're not supposed to do only business with people you agree with.
That being said, when you have things like this, that's making a big difference. Their sales are down 24 percent.
Their stock does seem to finally be reacting to this. For a while, it hadn't really reacted.
GLENN: Because I don't think people thought it was serious. And thought it was going to last.
STU: Right. And so now you're seeing them panic. You see a real reaction. Disney is the same way.
I don't know that Disney's business was particularly harmed by any of the stuff that happened there.
But it might be.
They -- a lot of the stuff that has been talked about.
We talked about it with the DeSantis situation.
They acted like they were blaming DeSantis for this 1 billion project that they shut down.
When in reality, they pretty much shut it down previously.
But still, like, nobody wants to be the next Disney. Nobody wants to have -- nobody wants to be the next Bud Light.
Nobody wants to be the next Target. Why bother with this stuff?
Just stay out of this discussion completely.
GLENN: Well, I will tell you that I hear from Ramaswamy. What's his name?
Yeah. Vivek Ramaswamy. He said, I talked to business leaders all the time, Glenn.
He says, there's a few of them that are held hostage. He said, that they're like, we don't want to do any of this with Vivek.
We just can't not do it.
STU: I think that's more common than we realize.
GLENN: I think so too.
You start teaching.
I don't know if Target is a true believer or not.
Boy, they sure seem like it.
STU: But the fact that they're moving clothes from the front to the back.
GLENN: They're only doing it in certain cities, et cetera, et cetera.
I think they just -- I -- boycott.
Don't -- and this is a women's thing, really. The men who goes -- that go to Target. They're like, I'm going to tear your face off. Are not the ones that they are going to concern themselves with.
STU: Also, are there actually any of the people -- I've never seen one. It's possible. I suppose. Some idiot is doing something dumb.
GLENN: I don't know. But one person does something dumb, and then it becomes the whole thing.
STU: Yes.
GLENN: But women, and I -- I mean, Ricki, our executive producer, she's like, I'm trying not to go to Target. It's been three days. I'm having a hard time not going to Target. I'm like, well, we can -- I can give you a 12-step class to go to.
We'll do 12 steps to get you off of Target. But it's the women that will make the difference in this one. And if you keep this up, if you teach Target the Anheuser-Busch lesson, you've got two in a row. And kind of with Disney. Three.
STU: Yeah. I just Disney counts. I think too, one of the things that's interesting with the Bud Light thing. And I've gone through this myself. It's not as much about some sort of organized boycott against this company.
Honestly, I don't know that -- I've heard a lot of people talking about that. It's not like a typical boycott that we've been on the other side of. Right? Where you have all these big organizations.
One of the things I think with Bud Light. And maybe Target is getting to that point.
Is that it's created some level of like societal, like, ickiness.
Like, it's one of those things. I think I mentioned this story.
I went to a wedding, and they had all the beers up there.
You can choose whatever you like.
And normally, I'll have one beer at a wedding. I'll probably have a Bud Light, just because it's the one I -- but I looked at it, and I was like, eh, I don't want to get a conversation about transgender issues tonight with somebody. I'll take a Miller Lite.
And I think that is like, what is actually affecting sales.
I don't know, that everybody would be like. Yes. We have people who are -- Kid Rock is shooting his Bud Light with machine guns. Maybe that's part of it. But I think part of it, too, is people want to avoid it.
And it's created this societal pressure on people, to just choose something else.
GLENN: That's -- when that happens, when somebody comes into the house with a Target bag, or you say, oh, I got this at Target.
And they'll say, you're shopping at Target?
STU: Yeah. Yeah.
GLENN: That's when this will change. That's when this will change.
STU: That's when it happens. It's amazing.
GLENN: I've been saying this for a while. I have really good feelings. Bad crap is coming our way. Don't get me wrong.
For those of you who listen for the doom and gloom, I'm still here.
But good things are happening as well.
There is something happening in America. Anheuser-Busch going down and staying down. And now, just in a couple of days, I mean, the icky feeling happened with me and my wife.
When we were walking through Target, and it's right there.
It's in your face.
And as I'm walking down the aisle of Target, right in front of the cashier. And I see all of this.
I'm like, you know, really?
This is who you are? This is who you think we are?
You think that transgendered needs a -- a display up front?
How many transgender people are there?
You are grooming our children. It really bothered me. Really bothered me.
STU: Yeah. And, you know, when you look at -- we just talked about this with the social media alert from the government yesterday.
They sent us a positive, one of the things about social media was it helped people -- what was it?
Developed their identity in LGBTQ. That was one of the positive effects of social media.
They had tons of negatives like suicide and everything else. But one of the positives was, if you happen to be LGBTQ, this helps you develop your identity.
And it's like, well, that's just saying, that social media is there, to walk you -- I mean, grooming is -- it's actually a really good word for that.
GLENN: It is. It is.
STU: It's different than the criminal version of it.
But it's a pretty applicable word.
GLENN: You know, they say, the thing that one generation tolerates, the next will embrace.
If you look at casual sex, we tolerated Bill Clinton.
Well, it depends on what the definition of is, is. And all of a sudden, it became totally cool.
Sex, and oral sex. All of that, totally fine.
Kids doing it in schools, almost immediately. Okay?
Remember that -- where was that story that was in Virginia.
STU: Alexandra, Virginia. Anyway, there was a -- this happened over night.
What are we tolerating? We are now tolerating Satanism.
We are now tolerating our children being groomed for trans drag shows. You don't want this embraced as a society.
