The New Woke Boycott Against Coca-Cola
Wokesters Go After Coke Over Georgia's New Election Law. And It's Coke's Fault
Welcome to our world of wokeness. It is not a nice, tolerant, or intelligent place. But it does spark a sense of humor, at least among normal Americans, at least until they find themselves in the sights of our aspiring overlords.
Cancel culture, as many of you should know, is not without funding and organizational support. I've seen and experienced it first hand. So have many corporate executives, who find themselves inundated with a sudden barrage of simple, scripted bot emails and phone calls from what seems like an “organic” movement (hint: it’s not). Boards of Directors seem to get them as well.
Progressives and their organizations that run cancel culture campaigns often look to leverage corporations to affect and influence government activity. They assume, wrongly, that corporations with big lobbying operations like Georgia-based Coca-Cola can force governors, US Senators, and federal and state legislators to cower and obey. That's the power TheWoke (and probably a few lobbyists) aspire to. After all, Coke, along with the Home Depot, announced their opposition to the Georgia law. Such pandering opens a Pandora’s Box that is not easily closed.
That was their first mistake. They’re in a no-win situation by commenting and pandering in such a weak way. Surely they know that they invite retribution either way and certainly from woke employees and “affinity groups” they’ve been cultivating for years now. But they couldn’t help themselves, apparently. The evidence continues to mount on how wokesters in corporations pressure their jelly-spined if not sympathetic bosses into ill-advised demands and actions.
To wit: Georgia's new election reform bill. The Woke is calling for a boycott of Coke in retribution for Georgia's new election reform law. As if Coke had anything to do with it. But their “statements” in reaction to the new law didn’t meet woke demands. So, here comes the boycott.
This terrible and poorly researched Yahoo News story completely mischaracterizes the new law, but that’s the corporate media for you. You can get the facts of the new law here and, if you have a Wall Street Journal subscription, here.
There is actually one very good reason to boycott Coca-Cola; their very woke general counsel has imposed racial quotas on the hiring and staffing of outside counsels, on which most consumer product companies rely, and heavily. I suspect he is part of the problem behind Coke’s not smart handling of this “controversy.”
And frankly, you invite boycotts over cultural issues, especially from the woke, when you do things like this photo from a pandering Coke billboard below. You’ve opened a door, and they will expect you to respond to their demands. Every time. All of them. You, Mr/Ms/Xe/Xer corporation simply cannot do enough. And it never ends.
Perhaps they should remember the first “Rule of Holes.” Stop digging. Few, if anyone, consume your products over your cultural pandering. They like it because it tastes good, is convenient, and the price is acceptable.
And they’re thirsty. At least until they’re turned off by your pandering and look elsewhere because they don’t want to be associated with the cultural politics of your brand. Boycotts work both ways.
But boycotting Coke over Georgia's election law is stupid, wrong, and should fall on deaf ears and fail. Consumer product companies get boycott threats by the dozens every week, if not every day. I would know from 23 years of experience in the consumer product world. Hint: most people will claim they “don’t drink Coke” but are probably consuming one of their many other excellent beverages and feature different labels. I do. You can look them up yourself.
Coke is highly unlikely to take any of my advice, but maybe they should learn a lesson from Delta Airlines, which expressed its support for the new election reform bill. When you stand up to the bullies in Wokedom, they back down. They don’t seem to be going after Delta.
There’s a lesson or two there, and Coke, along with all other consumer product companies, would be wise to learn from it. But don’t count on it.