You Have Influence! “Go Woke, Go Broke” — A Brief History of Successful Boycotts  

Bud Light. Target. Lowe’s. John Deere. And the list goes on.

Conservative boycotts have been taking place for years, but never before have they elicited so much real change. “For once, Americans are making companies think twice about their extreme politics,” Washington Stand’s Editorial Director Suzanne Bowdey shared at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit during a panel on the anti-woke movement. “[T]he bottom line is, if you’re one of those Americans that’s taking the stand for your values with your dollar, you’re winning.” 

I. Bud Light & Target

The wave of impactful boycotts began in April 2023 when Bud Light launched a campaign with a “transgender” biological male celebrating “360 days of girlhood” with a personalized can of beer. An onslaught of boycotts immediately ensued. Conservatives, Christians, country music artists, women’s rights activists, and others banned together to show Bud Light that womanhood cannot be commandeered by delusional men. To date, Bud Light has lost $27 billion in value due to the boycott, which is ongoing.

Shortly after the Bud Light controversy, another major boycott began. This time it was aimed at Target, which has long been an “ally” to the LGBT cause, but for many customers, they took it a step too far during June of 2023 – “Pride Month.” What began as outrage over “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for biological men who want to pretend they are women turned to concern over marketing LGBT-themed products to children. It soon came to light that several of the products in Target’s “Pride” collection were designed by a Satanist who developed other merchandise with taglines like “Satan respects pronouns.” As more and more details about Target’s entanglement with the LGBT community came to light, the call for boycotts grew stronger. Target slowly scaled back some of the LGBT merchandise in conservative states but did not issue an apology or position reversal. For the first time in six years, Target’s sales significantly dropped in 2023.

II. Tractor Supply Co. 

Invigorated by the successful boycotts against Bud Light and Target, a new era of conservative corporate activism began in 2024 – primarily through filmmaker and activist Robby Starbuck, who began investigating big corporations to reveal their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies and affiliation with radical groups like the Human Rights Campaign. One of his first targets was Tractor Supply Co. Just three weeks after his media blitz campaign, the company announced a complete reversal of their woke policies. They pledged to halt support of LGBT events and eliminate their DEI policies after losing $2 billion in less than a month in response to Starbuck’s revelations.

“CEO Hal Lawton, who’s only been at the helm [of Tractor Supply Co.] since 2020, took the Tennessee-based company in a radical new direction, embracing everything from transgenderism to DEI — decisions that earned him a perfect score on [the Human Right Campaign’s] 2022 Equality Index, honors on Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index for 2022 and 2023, and Newsweek’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity in 2023. And while the adulation of the Left might have been music to Lawton’s ears, it became a battle cry for his heartland consumers,” a Washington Stand reporter noted.

Despite the financial incentive to reverse the controversial policies, Tractor Supply’s statement in response to the boycott seemed sincere. It was not merely a half-hearted apology to win back customers, but an action plan for the future and a commitment to do better. Their statement reads:

Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business. For instance, this means we will:

1. 1. No longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign
   2. Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business
   3. Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns 
   4. Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment
   5. Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts

“This is a massive victory for sanity and the single biggest boycott win of our lifetime,” Starbuck tweeted after the announcement. “Let stores just be stores again. No politics, no far-left social values push, just good products & services. No one is asking for discrimination, just normalcy and to not have your politics shoved down their throat.” 

III. Against DEI

Since that major victory, eight other companies have disavowed DEI policies thanks to Starbuck’s investigative journalism and conservatives bringing their purchasing power to bear. So far, the following companies have abandoned the DEI and/or LGBT agenda:

• John Deere – July 2024
• Microsoft – July 2024
• Harley-Davidson – August 2024
• Lowes – August 2024
• Brown-Forman Distillers (Jack Daniel’s) – August 2024
• Ford – August 2024
• Molson Coors – September 2024
• Toyota – October 2024

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

IV. Winning

It’s easy to get lost in the mainstream media narrative that conservative values are in the minority and traditional views are “on the way out.” The reality is that the majority of Americans still hold traditional, common-sense views about merit-based hiring, that there are only two genders, that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that abortion is murder. The media wants to drown out those voices – but purchasing power speaks for itself. These boycotts are showing corporate America what consumers really want, and proving to politicians that conservative views still matter.

At FPIW, we care deeply about standing up for biblical values, and our Issues Booklet can be found here. If these values are important to you, please consider joining our team of DEFENDERS to advocate for your values in the public square and beyond.

• Want to Change Our Culture? 500,000 DEFENDER Prayer Warriors Are Needed. 
• Want to be Heard in Olympia? 200,000 DEFENDER Activists for Political Power Are Needed.
• Want to Change Washington’s Laws? 450,000 DEFENDER Signers of Initiatives & Referendums Are Needed. 
• Want Lasting Change? 1.7 Million DEFENDER Voters for Conservative Candidates Are Needed. 

Join us! Please sign up to become a DEFENDER today.