Something strange is happening in the corporate world.
It’s committing suicide by ignoring the disappearance of its customers, resulting in a huge reduction in profitability. This has been caused by corporate branding of its products with an extreme left wing agenda. For example Disney, which used to provide family entertainment, is now wallowing in homosexual, transgender stories and has become a grotesque caricature of its former self. Disney lost 3.6 million subscribers to its direct customer mainstreaming service from April to June, 2023. On March 28, 2022 Disney’s stock price began to fall, and by April 2022 Disney had lost $34 billion in value, which continues to decline.
Target, whose customers are family people, during the June 2023 “Pride” month, sold merchandise including rainbow coloured outfits for babies, and “tuck friendly” swimsuits for men identifying as women. Customers boycotted Target in droves, resulting in Target losing over $12 billion.
“Bud Light” beer, manufactured by Anheuser-Busch, was boycotted by customers after it featured a transgender individual promoting the product in an advertisement. Sales of the beverage subsequently fell 25% and are still falling. Despite the loss Anheuser-Busch funded a float in the Toronto Gay Pride parade in June, as well as one in Cincinnati.
Starbucks locations in the US have removed their “pride” decorations but executives claim that it did not change its policies of supporting the LGBTQ, such as providing health benefits to homosexual couples, and covering the cost of gender reassignment surgery.
In other words despite the lost consumers, and plunging profits, these companies still pursue the extreme, left woke agenda. What is happening to make them ignore their customers’ resistance to their products? Corporations are supposedly in business to make a profit, but something curious is occurring.
Companies apparently prefer losing millions of dollars in profits as well as endure their shareholders’ anger, because the extraordinarily wealthy investment company BlackRock insists that they do so.
The multi-national BlackRock investment company controls roughly $10 trillion in assets, and is described as “the company that owns the world”. In 2018, BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink, a supporter of left wing extremist causes, issued a threat to companies, insisting they do more than make a profit, but “contribute to society” by promoting left wing environmental, social and corporate governance policies, referred to as ESG.
The threat by CEO Fink started only as a guideline, but now has turned into a heavy-handed mandate to promote controversial “social justice” issues, i.e. left wing, woke policies. Corporate leaders fear losing their jobs if they stop pushing ESG policies. They fear this more than they fear their shareholders’ anger. This is because BlackRock controls investments. It can stop investing in their company and prevent future investments. It can call on the Board of Directors to push ESG policies or else it will withdraw support. It can control the pay of CEO’s and other executives. It knows how shareholders vote and can have them removed if they don’t do what it wants. In other words, since BlackRock manages trillions of dollars in investments, Fink and his company have tremendous power and influence in the corporate world.
This power and influence extends not just to corporations but to individuals as well. For example, it can and does “buy” Senators, who, when elected by funds provided by Blackrock, do what BlackRock demands. US President Biden became involved with BlackRock in 2019, when he first ran for president. This may explain why the “good Catholic” Biden is pushing abortion up to birth, ordering all pharmacists to sell the abortion pill, and promoting transgenderism and homosexuality “rights” at every opportunity, including same sex marriage.
Biden and the Democratic Party may be pawns imposing the ESG agenda on the country by way of BlackRock’s power.
Conservative US States Hit Back at Blackrock
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, has partnered with 18 other conservative states to force CEO’s and corporate managers away from BlackRock’s control. They are doing so by removing from BlackRock’s hands, state pension funds and University endowments. It is expected that at least 14 more states will be passing anti-ESG measures this year.
It is important therefore to continue the boycotting of corporations which push ESG policies. The power of the consumer to boycott ESG corporations will ultimately force corporations away from BlackRock’s control.