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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MAY 5, 2023 : Bud Light beer grocery store display. Bud Light boycott is causing competing light beer brands to sell out. Sold out beer cooler.Shutterstock

(LifeSiteNews) — It’s official: the conservative boycott of Bud Light over its decision to celebrate “transgender” influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s “transition” is more than just a flash in the pan. According to NBC, “sales volumes of Bud Light for the week ending May 14 sank 28.4 percent, extending a downward trend from the 27.7 percent decline seen the week before.” Bud Light’s parent company declined to comment on this latest news, but since the boycott began, it has placed Alissa Heinerscheid, the head of marketing, as well as her boss Daniel Blake, on leave.  

In a note published to clients this week, JPMorgan analysts stated that even if the spiral stabilizes, “We believe there is a subset [of] American consumers who will not drink Bud Light for the foreseeable future.” According to Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily: “Nobody imagined it would go on this long. It seems random – it struck a nerve. I’ve never seen anything to compare it to, in all of the [consumer packaged goods] industry. It’s a real shock.

Bud Light may be just the beginning as corporations double down on their LGBT credentials and force their customers to decide whether they want to back ideologies with their wallets. The North Face, the creator of outdoor apparel and equipment, hired as their latest influencer a drag queen who calls himself “Pattie Gonia” and stars in their latest ad. 

That strikes me as another example of miscalculating the customer base, but we’ll see. The folks at Target certainly seem to have gotten the Bud Light memo – after rolling out its “Pride Collection” at the start of May, it is now pulling many of those products in response to customer backlash. Target is insisting that it is doing this for the safety of their employees, but fail to cite a single example of “volatile circumstances” they reference. It all likelihood, they are trying to avoid condemnation from the LGBT community while still soothing their angry customers. 

READ: Target removes some LGBT merchandise linked to ‘transgender’ Satanist designer after backlash

Target’s “Pride Collection” included “gender fluid” mugs, “queer all year” calendars, and children’s books for ages 2–8 with titles such as Bye Bye Binary, Pride 1,2,3, and I’m not a Girl. Some of the “Pride Collection” items are under review, but those provided by the LGBT brand Abprallen are being removed entirely, including from the online catalogue. Abprallen is known for its association with British designer Erik Carnell, who is known for designing Satanic-themed merchandise with pentagrams and horned skulls.  

It seems likely that Target is responding in this fashion not merely because of customer backlash, but due to the success of the Bud Light boycott. As The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham noted: “Targeting one brand per business sector at a time could effect massive change. Could even turn back time. 

We are about to be treated to an entire month of corporations doing groveling obeisance to the LGBT movement, regardless of how grotesque and blasphemous they have to be to do it (as we saw recently with the Dodgers’ baseball team inviting a LGBT group “the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” which specializes in mocking Catholicism in a hyper-sexualized manner, to perform at the team’s “Pride Night”). What remains to be seen is how much Americans will tolerate. Before the Bud Light boycott, major corporations seemed too big to fail — and too large to sustain any real damage from a boycott drive by conservatives and Christians. Now, if Target is any indication, the corporate calculus may be changing.  

Conservatives should pick their targets carefully and stick to them for the long haul. Corporations want to show their contempt for our values while accepting our money. We should show them that contempt can flow both ways.   

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Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.

He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Jonathon’s first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.

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