Entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary believes that companies promoting Pride merchandise and embarking on Pride advertising campaigns are making a “huge mistake.”
This week on Jesse Watters Primetime, O’Leary spoke out about the recent string of companies that have decided to cater to their leftist customers and alienate those with traditional values. Referring to Target’s recent decision to draw back the amount of Pride merchandise on display in their stores, O’Leary describes the company as being “terrified of a Bud Light situation.”
“Do you ever hear a CEO that represents a company ever talking about abortion? Never. Because that is an issue that will never be resolved. It’s a personal issue, it’s a family issue, it’s a religious issue. It’s partisan forever. You don’t touch it. Same thing with politics, same thing with gender identity. Everybody has a personal opinion about it. When you actually get involved in a fight like that, you lose 50% of your constituency.”
-Kevin O’Leary on Fox News
Leading up to “Pride Month,” which takes place every June, a number of companies are being boycotted for their decision to promote LGBT clothing collections, the most recent being Kohl’s and Target.
Many of these companies have, for years, promoted Pride merchandise, but conservative Americans seem to have finally had enough after product lines became advertised to adolescents, even toddlers. Parents already have enough on their plate having to shelter their children from progressive politics in the classroom and on social media. Many of these parents don’t want the added stress of having to explain transgender ideology after strolling through Target with their young child.
In his interview, O’Leary emphasized how detrimental it is for these sorts of companies to act in a partisan way. When organizations choose to heavily favor one side of a partisan political issue, they choose to anger half of their customers.
“When something goes viral, it can be a good thing,” O’Leary said. “But mostly it’s negative, and it’s decimated these brands very quickly.”
Brands and corporations in recent years however have, in part, lost the need for customer approval, and now rely more heavily on the shining endorsements given by elites via a corporate equity index ranking and scoring ESG (environment, social, governance) points.
More companies have been willing to weigh in on political matters than ever before, essentially making the bet that conservatives either won’t care enough to stop supporting them or won’t have any alternatives to turn to.
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
