The maker of Jack Daniel’s whisky is pulling back on its DEI initiatives, dodging an “anti-woke” boycott threat led by a conservative activist, the New York Post reports.
Jack Daniel’s parent, spirits maker Brown-Forman Corp. is the latest company to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion program, following Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply and John Deere.
Conservative social media influencer and podcaster Robby Starbuck was planning to spearhead a boycott against the Jack Daniel’s maker, which has a market capitalization of $21.37 billion.
“We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose,” Starbuck wrote on X.
Brown-Forman launched its DEI program in 2019, but will now stop linking bonuses and pay to DEI progress and will no longer participate in an annual ranking of companies for their LGBTQ-friendly environment, according to a copy of an internal memo Starbuck posted on X.
The distiller is also trashing its plans to work with more diverse suppliers.
Brown-Forman’s 2023 annual report said it would tie execs’ short-term compensation to their progress on DEI.
Brown-Forman told its employees in the Wednesday memo that times have simply changed.
Since launching its DEI goals in 2019, “the world has evolved, our business has changed, and the legal and external landscape has shifted dramatically, particularly within the United States,” Brown-Forman leaders said in the memo.
“With these new dynamics at play, we must adjust our work to ensure it continues to drive business results while appropriately recognizing the current environment in which we find ourselves,” they added.
Mahoney Asset Management CEO Ken Mahoney of Montvale, N.J., applauded the move, noting how Tesla, Home Depot, Wayfair and Walmart have also been phasing out their DEI leadership goals.
“The name ‘diversity, equity, inclusion’ — you would think that’s a good thing,” Mahoney said. “But the way the companies express it, you squeeze out other potential employees who could have even better performance.
“It hurts their image because consumers feel like they’re not putting the best people in place but, rather, keeping score. And for this group of consumers, we’re not born and raised this way.”
Only 38% of Americans want companies to take a social or political stance on current events, according to to a Gallup -Bently University survey.
Beyond DEI, Starbuck is going after companies that participate in Human Rights Campaign’s ranking of LGBTQ-friendly workplaces; Brown-Forman earned a perfect score of 100.
Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert of New York weighed in on the controversy, saying he does not think companies embracing left-leaning causes are paying attention to their broader customer base.
“Jack Daniels has clearly reached the sobering conclusion that being hyper-focused on factors other than merit do not increase the bottom line,” Alpert said. “In fact, we need not look any further than Target and Bud Light to see how making the move from that of retailers to social justice warriors does not lead to best outcomes, increased sales, and improved public image.”
After Target launched its 2023 Pride collection featuring a gender-concealing bathing suit for boys, customers boycotted the company, and its market valuation plummeted by $10 billion over a 10-day period. A Target shareholder also sued the company after their holdings lost $20,000 during the controversy.
The market capitalization of Anheuser-Busch, parent of Bud Light, fell by $35 billion after the beer brand partnered with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Brown-Forman stock (BF-B) was barely down, by 0.87%, to $44.76 a share as of 2:13 p.m. EST Thursday.