Jack Daniel’s whiskey maker Brown-Forman Corp. is the latest company to abandon its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) focus as conservative backlash begins to make itself felt in the corporate world.
The company is no longer linking employee bonuses and pay to DEI performance, and also plans to withdraw from rankings of companies based on their LGBTQ-friendliness, with Fox News reporting that employees were told that the change in policy was the result of a shifting business landscape.
Brown-Forman Corp.’s DEI disavowal is the latest in a series of such moves, with famous motorcycle brand Harley Davidson announcing earlier this week that it too was leaving DEI behind.
“We see it as every leader’s role to ensure we have an employee base that reflects our customers and the geographies in which we operate. It is critical to our business that we hire and retain the best talent and that all employees feel welcome. That said, we have not operated a DEI function since April 2024, and we do not have a DEI function today. We do not have hiring quotas and we no longer have supplier diversity spend goals,” Harley-Davidson said in a statement.
We remain committed to listening to all members of our community as we continue on our journey together as one Harley-Davidson. United We Ride. pic.twitter.com/0feGYhTUMh
— Harley-Davidson (@harleydavidson) August 19, 2024
American rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Company, and agricultural machinery firm John Deere have both also backed off diversity commitments following a weeks-long pressure campaign led by conservative political commentator, Robby Starbuck.
Tractor Supply, a ‘Fortune 500’ company, had previously been recognised as an exemplar of a diverse and inclusive workplace, including last year in Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index and Newsweek’s list of ‘America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity’. It was this that saw it targeted by conservatives, when Starbuck posted on X June 6 that it was “time to expose tractor supply,” which led to discussion of the Tennessean company’s DEI hiring policies and activist activities.
The campaign yielded results, with the Financial Times reporting that the company’s Nasdaq share price took a 5% hit over the course of the following month, leading the company to backpedal.
“Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business,” Tractor Supply said in a statement issued in response to the conservative pressure. That decision resulted in a number of concrete actions, including ending “nonbusiness activities” such as sponsoring Pride activities and swapping to a focus on conservation over and above carbon emissions goals.
For its part, John Deere said in response to a similar campaign that it would no longer be sponsoring “social or cultural awareness” events, and that it would audit all of its training materials to ensure “the absence of socially-motivated messages”.
Our customers’ trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere. We fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can. pic.twitter.com/8BgyPyQJQo
— John Deere (@JohnDeere) July 16, 2024
Earlier this year, it was reported that DEI as an acronym had disappeared altogether from a number of corporate settings, including pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s annual shareholder letter – previously, it had appeared up to 48 times. In the same spirit, Starbucks coffee replaced “representation” goals with “talent” performance for executive bonus incentives.
Gript previously covered Disney’s acknowledgement that there existed a “misalignment” between their output and the public’s “tastes and preferences for entertainment,” an admission that came following substantial financial losses on a number of films. CEO Bob Iger emphasised that the company would be focusing on entertainment going forward in an effort to placate both shareholders and consumers.
The common retort “Go Woke, Go Broke” has frequently been critiqued as ultimately being detached from reality, with many consumers appearing willing to overlook ideological disagreements with the companies they pay for goods and services.
However, beginning with the BudLight backlash in early 2023 – inspired by the American beer’s social media partnership with a male TikTok personality who identifies as a woman, Dylan Mulvaney – which resulted in a near 30% fall in sales after leading conservative figures encouraged consumers to boycott the beer, conservative influencers have seen more success in affecting company policy than previously.