Why Coca Cola caved

Brand new survey data suggest that corporations that cave to the left alienate more consumers than they attract — by a big margin.  Glenn Reynolds's slogan "Get woke, go broke" turns out to be very true.

Yesterday, in discussing the departure of its general counsel, who mandated a (quite probably illegal) quota for law firms working for the Coca-Cola Company to have 30% of their billable hours performed by minorities and 15% by Blacks, I noted that the company "seems to be learning the hard way that signing up for the racialist agenda of the left has a downside."  Today, we learn, via a Rasmussen poll, some of the sort of data that must have convinced the company to quietly retreat from so openly race-mongering.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 37% of American Adults the company's stand against the new Georgia law makes them less likely to purchase Coca-Cola products. Twenty-five percent (25%) say they are more likely to buy Coke, but 30% say the company's political stance doesn't make much difference.

The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on April 15 and 18, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.


YouTube screen grab (cropped).

A net loss of inclination to purchase its products by twelve percent of the population (37% minus 25%) represents a lot of money.  Try reporting a 12% sales decline in any major American corporation and see what happens to your career.

Of course, the minority lawyer quota was only part of Coke's antagonizing a large part of the public.  There was the "try acting less white" training fiasco that got publicity, and the CEO's statement condemning Georgia's voting integrity law.

But the overall sign is that while a quarter of the public may favor your nationally branded products if you get woke, a much larger (roughly 50% larger) share of the public will be turned off.

Delta Airlines and American Airlines, both of which issued statements condemning the Georgia law, ought to take notice, too.  Alas, United Airlines has announced hiring quotas for training pilots, so that leaves only Southwest Airlines as the only major carrier that is nonpolitical — and that's the airline that I will fly when possible.  I used to favor Delta because its staff is generally more pleasant than the others, and because I have a lifetime membership in its airport lounges, but I am angry enough to skip it when possible.

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