Go Woke, Go Broke? Americans Don’t Care For Corporate Activism

A new warning to woke CEOs: Americans don’t want corporations meddling in divisive political issues, and they perceive such activism as phony pandering. There’s also a huge gap between what consumers believe about woke activism compared with out-of-touch executives, according to a study conducted by the Brunswick Group, a management firm.

Amazon yanks a documentary about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. EBay scraps Dr. Seuss books. Disney fires actress Gina Carano. Do consumers agree with these moves?

Brunswick found 63 percent of corporate executives “agree unequivocally that companies should speak out on social issues,” but a mere 36 percent of voters agree. Corporate brass also has “a highly inflated sense of how effective corporate communication has been on social issues compared to voters.”

An overwhelming 74 percent of business executives think corporate activism is effective, compared with just 39 percent of voters. Companies spend billions of dollars building brand equity through marketing campaigns. Turns out their virtue-signaling could be counterproductive because voters believe it’s inauthentic.

The study found more than 60 percent of voters think “companies only speak out on social issues to look better to consumers and are not being sincere,” even as 57 percent of executives said companies “speak out on social issues because they want to achieve real change.”

Talk about disconnected narcissism. Will these brands wake up from their woke fantasies?

“Authenticity” is a buzzword that corporate bigwigs throw around in hopes of reaching younger consumers. Instead, they come across as hovering, obnoxious parents in mom jeans and dad fanny packs. 

Brunswick’s findings echo an April Rasmussen Reports survey finding 37 percent of American adults said Coca-Cola’s swipe against Georgia’s voter integrity law made them less likely to purchase Coke products. (Incidentally, Coke twice won worst company for global plastic waste.)

Just 25 percent were more likely to buy Coke, the survey found, and 30 percent said it didn’t have much effect. People vote with their wallets: 52 percent of Republicans told Rasmussen they were less likely to shop Coke because of the Atlanta-based firm’s election-law stance — as did 24 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of independents. Coke’s stock price is down since January — even as the S&P 500 Index is up more than 20 percent. Will Coke shareholders ask for corporate executives’ pink slips if they keep up this nonsense?

Coca-Cola said Georgia’s law “makes it harder for people to vote, not easier,” but the statute expands early voting, requires funding to stop precinct voting lines from getting too long and guarantees a minimum number of ballot drop boxes (which didn’t exist in the state until 2020).

Georgia critics denounced requiring mail-in voters to provide some form of accepted ID. But uber-liberal states like New Jersey, Virginia and California demand this also. Georgia voters: Remember this hypocrisy now that Stacey Abrams — who still refuses to concede her 2018 loss to Gov. Brian Kemp — just declared Wednesday she’s running for a rematch.

Despite woke executives’ wide-ranging corporate bullying and cancellations of American citizens, there’s one foreign social-justice cause off-limits: China.

American business leaders back just about every liberal political cause under the sun, yet they won’t utter a peep about vile, heinous modern-day slavery and human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party. This includes the imprisonment and torture of an estimated 1 million Muslim Uyghurs.  

Rather than showing a backbone, major corporations like Nike, NFL, Tiffany, Marriott and Vans cave to the CCP at every turn. One example: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon groveling before the CCP to apologize for joking that his company would outlast the CCP.

A shining counterexample comes from the NBA’s rank and file. Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is an incredibly bold man yet to receive support from his higher-ups. He’s excoriated the NBA for its cozy CCP relationship. Immediately after obtaining US citizenship, Kanter legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom. Freedom’s new surname will appear on his jerseys.

Freedom grew up in Turkey, where he angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a man growing in violent aggression against his own people. Erdogan’s regime last month issued Freedom’s 10th arrest warrant because of his courageous statements against Turkish human rights abuses.

Multiple polls show most Americans are also wary of the CCP and want their country to vigorously push back. Shots fired, corporate America. Will you support this authentic cause?

Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice.