Don’t tread on me! Nearly 60% of Americans want big business to stay out of politics, new Gallup poll reveals

The majority of Americans want big companies to stay out of politics, according to a new poll from Gallup and Bentley University.

The survey found that up to 60 percent of Americans believe that companies should not take a public position on social or political issues.

Despite the increasing trend of corporate activism, Americans appear to be growing tired of the corporate world injecting politics into their messaging, especially when it comes to divisive issues.

While some business leaders have openly embraced woke ideologies, this poll suggests that this approach could negatively impact public approval of the company.

Americans are more likely to support companies that take a stand on issues such as climate change (55 percent), mental health (52 percent), freedom of speech (49 percent) and healthcare (48 percent).

Conversely, they are the least likely to support corporate involvement in areas such as abortion (26 percent), political candidates (19 percent) and religion (15 percent).

When it comes to specific issues, only 37 percent of Americans believe companies should take a stand on LGBTQ+ issues, 45 percent on racial issues and 39 percent on gun laws.

Only 34 percent believe that companies should be involved in issues such as immigration policy and only 27 percent in international conflicts.

Several major US companies, including Target, Adidas and Bud Light, are facing significant backlash over woke advertising campaigns.

Both Target and Bud Light are examples of companies that “woke up” and experienced an immediate setback from which they are still trying to recover.

Bud Light may never recover from the controversy that cost the company nearly $400 million in U.S. sales losses.

In response to the devastating loss, Anheuser-Busch’s CEO said in August, “They want to enjoy their beer without debate.”

Sales of Bud Light beer are down by more than a quarter year-over-year, following the disastrous collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The beer brand presented Mulvaney with personalized cans with her face on them, which she promoted on April 1.

Fans of the beer erupted in anger. A boycott was declared, Kid Rock used Bud Light cans as target practice, and $5 billion was wiped from the brand’s value. Two senior marketing executives have taken leave over the fiasco.

On Sunday, Beer Business Daily reported that off-premise beer sales volume – that is, the amount of beer sold outside restaurants and bars – was down 26.1 percent from a year earlier in the week ending April 22 .

Sales fell by 21.1 percent the week before. While competitors, Coors Light and Miller Lite, saw consumers turning to their brands as both experienced sales increases.

So far this year, Bud Light volumes are down 8 percent.

“Bud Light Blue’s shocking deterioration in market share continued into the third week of April and somehow got even worse.

“We have never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short time,” Beer Business Daily wrote on its website.

Coors Light volume rose 13.3 percent and Miller Lite rose 13.6 percent during the same period.

Last week, senior executives from parent company Anheuser-Busch held a closed-door meeting with distributors in Washington, D.C., where they laid out future plans — and vowed to “spend heavily” on Bud Light to save its public image, according to reports.

Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said spending on the brand “fell off a cliff” last year, but Anheuser-Busch leaders are promising to rectify the situation, the New York Post reported.

The “stunning collapse” of retail giant Target following its controversial LGBT Pride month product release should serve as a warning to CEOs considering turning to woke marketing campaigns, warns Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary.

Target has lost more than $4 billion in market value in just under three weeks following the scandal, which included offering a “crease-friendly” swimwear line for women.

O’Leary said the “unprecedented” decline shows the company’s failure to prioritize its investors over appeasing modern, woke norms, including listening to diversity officers rather than business-savvy executives.

“On the other hand, the job of a company – especially from an investor’s perspective – and those who are retired, for example, own the S&P 500 or own Target stock, is concerned that they might lose their value. way in terms of what the main goal is: your customers, your employees and your shareholders,” he told Fox News at the time.

“Target’s stunning market cap collapse is almost unprecedented for its own stock in two decades, and how it happened is currently under scrutiny by many other boards,” he said.

“If you stray too far or too far from the primary mandate, the market has proven to really, really punish you.

“And it’s woken up all kinds of boards.”

O’Leary said customer outrage over recent controversies, such as Bud Light’s disastrous campaign with trans star Dylan Mulvaney, is being amplified by social media.

“This shows the power of something most boards have never considered: social media,” he said.

“When social media leaves you out of control of the message, which is obvious, you better figure out what message you’re putting out there before it ever gets out.

‘We almost need a new management committee. We have committees for risk, compensation, we have compliance committees.

“We need a communications and media committee to advise the rest of the board, who don’t even have a Twitter account, don’t have Facebook or don’t use LinkedIn.”