Woke Capitalism
December 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Jaguar made news of the wrong kind when it released a seemingly gay-themed ad that featured models in brightly colored clothes, but no cars. Not exactly the traditional Jaguar image. The company’s new models–or concept versions of them, anyway–are being unveiled tonight, in Miami. But meanwhile, photos have leaked: Jaguar’s ‘Barbie pink’ electric car leaked online. It looks pretty good from this angle, if you can get past the pink:
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November 26, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Walmart has joined a growing list of American companies who have renounced DEI programs and initiatives. Walmart’s announcement was precipitated by pressure from activist Robby Starbuck: Walmart has said it will no longer consider race and gender policies when granting supplier contracts after facing pressure from a conservative activist. *** Walmart is winding down the Center for Racial Equity, a non-profit organisation awarded $100 million of funding by Walmart in
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November 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Jaguars have traditionally been stylish muscle cars. Just a few years ago, the entire Jaguar product line had big V-8 engines. That was why people bought them. For 20 years I drove Jaguars; actually just two cars, one for 11 years and one for nine. They were great vehicles, and I enjoyed driving them. Jaguar began going off the rails when it announced that it would transition to an all-electric
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October 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The phenomenon of woke capitalism was deeply weird, and happily it seems to be coming to an end. This time it’s Toyota: Toyota announced Thursday it will no longer sponsor LGBTQ parades and events and will no longer make efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Toyota told employees it will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and other corporate surveys. Instead, it will
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August 22, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The company that owns Jack Daniel’s has abandoned its DEI program under threat of a boycott: Spirits giant Brown-Forman Corp. – with a market capitalization of $21.37 billion – is the latest company to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion program, following Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply and John Deere. Major firms who rely heavily on a red state clientele have been caving to boycott pressure from corporate activist Robby Starbuck, who
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August 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
We can add Harley-Davidson to the growing list of companies that have said goodbye to DEI: Harley-Davidson released a statement on Monday renouncing DEI and other controversial company initiatives in the wake of social-media outrage and withering pressure from longtime loyal bikers. “It is critical to our business that we hire and retain the best talent and that all employees feel welcome,” the statement reads.”That said, we have not operated
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June 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Environmental/Social/Governance (ESG) investing is one of the most repellent fads of recent years. Happily, the Telegraph reports that a decisive turning point may have been reached: “How the ‘woke capitalist’ gravy train came to a juddering halt.” First, some history: While the acronym only rose to prominence in the City in the last five years, ESG has been around for far longer. The term was first coined in 2005 in
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June 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Wall Street Journal reports that corporate America is backpedaling away from “diversity”: White-collar companies that once championed programs to recruit diverse employees are now tiptoeing away from them. PricewaterhouseCoopers and JPMorgan Chase are among those that recently removed or altered descriptions of their programs for underrepresented students. The shift came after an “anti-woke” movement took aim at U.S. companies and a Supreme Court decision overturned affirmative action in college
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June 8, 2024 — John Hinderaker
It is good to know that even in today’s anything-goes age, some things are inviolate. Like the “Pride” flag. (If anyone ever explains why being “queer”–their word, not one that I would ever use–is something to be proud of, let me know.) Thus we have kids being arrested for riding their scooters across a Pride flag that was…painted on a street: A group of five to six kids just starting
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March 31, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Woke capitalism is one of the strange phenomena of our era. I understand why government agencies might go in for DEI (Didn’t Earn It), since government at all levels is mostly in the hands of liberals and government employees, by their nature, are inclined to social engineering. But why corporations should sign up en masse for this left-wing nonsense is beyond me. It is beyond most Americans, too. Rasmussen asked
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March 24, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Of all the inroads the Left has made into our institutions in recent years, the most puzzling is its increasing dominance of the business world. One aspect of this is the movement for “ESG”–Environmental, Social, Governance–investing. ESG basically means swearing fealty to the craziest of left-wing schemes. Why it became a fad is beyond me. Happily, the ESG craze may be coming to an end. The Wall Street Journal reports:
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March 6, 2024 — John Hinderaker
North Face is a left-wing clothing company that is breaking new ground in wokeness. It now has a program, where anyone who completes its “allyship” training module can get a 20% discount on North Face products. This is truly a new frontier: a company is actually engaging in price discrimination, offering lower prices to people who share (or pretend to share) its political views. Intrigued by news stories about North
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January 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
One iconic cultural institution after another has collapsed in recent years, but this still seems shocking: while news accounts are somewhat confusing, it appears that all or nearly all employees of Sports Illustrated magazine have received layoff notices. Sports Illustrated belongs to Authentic Brands Group, which licensed the magazine to Arena Group Holdings. The present layoffs apparently are the result of Arena’s failing to make its quarterly license payment. Hollywood
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November 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I generally think of green dogma as something that the gentry class imposes on the rest of us–you peons have to live more poorly, never mind my yacht and private jet. But there is another side to it, as well, as we see in the Guardian: environmentalism as a manifestation of class envy. The article describes green angst in the advertising industry: There is increasing agreement that although individual behaviour
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November 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Disney Company has fallen on hard times, with one movie after another bombing or, at a minimum, failing to live up to expectations. Disney’s troubles are widely blamed on its far-left corporate culture, which prioritizes pushing woke themes over entertaining the masses. But is that how Disney sees it? Yes, actually. A site called That Park Place has reviewed Disney’s most recent 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange
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October 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Left’s most insidious power grabs involve taking over private companies that run services that are open to the public. Especially where such services have large market shares, left-wing dominance can have real consequences in suppressing conservative (or just normal) ideas. A case in point is EventBrite. EventBrite’s managers have decided that defending women’s sports is out of bounds. Thus, they have thrown a speech by Riley Gaines at the
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October 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The adage “get woke, go broke” doesn’t always hold true. Sadly, some companies, like Nike, have parlayed leftism into profits. But this one seems overdetermined: Victoria’s Secret drops feminist makeover after sales slump. Who exactly thought that feminist wokeness would cause women to buy a company’s undergarments? Lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret is dropping its feminist makeover and bringing back “sexiness” as it tries to reverse falling sales. Did the people
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