I think the Bud Light thing started as shareholder primacy in two ways:
1. Budweiser is a massive company that is in search of new markets to maximize revenue. Pretty much any new revenue is going to be on the way out margin of society because they have been swamping the airwaves targeting the main stream markets (i.e. white males) for decades. Transgender people are less than 1% of the population, so a pretty small market segment. but LGTBQ overall is probably about 10%. When you already own much of the mainstream market, that is a pretty big new market. In the wake of Obergefell etc., they probably thought they were ok to go after it. The recent conservative push to demonize that market segment probably caught them totally flat-footed with a totally unexpected response by their regular customer base.
2. Similar problem with staffing. Labor participation rate of 25-54 year olds is currently 83%, near the highest value recorded. If you want to hire people, you need to tap into people you wouldn't even have thought of 20-30 years ago. LGBTQ is such a segment.
BTW - as somebody who has done quite a few Adopt-a-Highway cleanups, I will note that Bud Light is a clear favorite of drivers who throw their beer cans out the window while driving on an interstate.
I can only dream that one day I'll see white heterosexual men like myself represented as the protagonist of a blockbuster movie, leading a successful company, or maybe someday even in the white house. Until then, it sucks to be so marginalized 😭 😭 😭 😭
As a more constructive aside, isn't stakeholder capitalism an honest signal to other market participants that the company is good to work with? It's easier to find customers and employees when the company believably claims that it will try not to screw them over.
I think the Bud Light thing started as shareholder primacy in two ways:
1. Budweiser is a massive company that is in search of new markets to maximize revenue. Pretty much any new revenue is going to be on the way out margin of society because they have been swamping the airwaves targeting the main stream markets (i.e. white males) for decades. Transgender people are less than 1% of the population, so a pretty small market segment. but LGTBQ overall is probably about 10%. When you already own much of the mainstream market, that is a pretty big new market. In the wake of Obergefell etc., they probably thought they were ok to go after it. The recent conservative push to demonize that market segment probably caught them totally flat-footed with a totally unexpected response by their regular customer base.
2. Similar problem with staffing. Labor participation rate of 25-54 year olds is currently 83%, near the highest value recorded. If you want to hire people, you need to tap into people you wouldn't even have thought of 20-30 years ago. LGBTQ is such a segment.
BTW - as somebody who has done quite a few Adopt-a-Highway cleanups, I will note that Bud Light is a clear favorite of drivers who throw their beer cans out the window while driving on an interstate.
The most marginalized (and demonized) group in America today is White heterosexual men.
Women now make 82% of the pay men get. Women used to get only 65% in 1982. I understand why white men feel marginalized with that level of suffering.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/03/01/the-enduring-grip-of-the-gender-pay-gap/#:~:text=Gender%20pay%20gap%20differs%20widely%20by%20race%20and%20ethnicity,-Looking%20across%20racial&text=In%202022%2C%20Black%20women%20earned,%2C%20making%2093%25%20as%20much.
I can only dream that one day I'll see white heterosexual men like myself represented as the protagonist of a blockbuster movie, leading a successful company, or maybe someday even in the white house. Until then, it sucks to be so marginalized 😭 😭 😭 😭
As a more constructive aside, isn't stakeholder capitalism an honest signal to other market participants that the company is good to work with? It's easier to find customers and employees when the company believably claims that it will try not to screw them over.