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Re: Conservatives Are Furious at Skittles' Pro-Transgender Packaging
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Lets Put Wrigley Out Of Business
Aug 13, 2023, 3:25:03 AM8/13/23
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On 12 Aug 2023, Culture War <now...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:ub8rvd$1g70j$1...@dont-email.me:
> Fine. Let's kill Skittles and the parent company.
>
> The Company That Owns Skittles
> Skittles is owned by Mars Incorporated and is sold under its Mars
> Wrigley Confectionery subsidiary. This subsidiary is from the Wrigley
> Company, which Mars Inc acquired in 2008 and merged with its chocolate
> division in 2016.
>
> The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company, is an
> American multinational chewing gum company, based in the Global
> Innovation Center in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois.
Conservatives online have attempted to make Skittles the latest target for
boycotts after the brand released pro-LGBTQ+ packaging in partnership with
the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The new packaging is predominantly black and white, with the candy brand's
traditional bright colors reserved for a band of rainbow running across
it. Additionally, it features illustrations of various young people, as
well as phrases like "Black Trans Lives Matter" and "Joy Is Resistance."
This is the fourth year that Skittles has partnered with GLAAD, one of the
most prominent pro-LGBTQ+ media monitoring groups in the country. Despite
that history, this year the campaign ran afoul of a subset of online
conservatives opposed to pro-LGBTQ+, especially pro-transgender, messaging
from companies and brands. Such messaging has been commonplace for years,
but has recently faced increased backlash as conservatives have launched
renewed opposition to LGBTQ+ communities.
The pushback emerged on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with a
number of posts, including one from the popular Libs of TikTok account. In
addition to pushback against the pro-trans messaging, some users took
issue with what appeared to be a drag queen on the packaging and accused
the brand of "coming after your children."
The pushback from conservatives about Skittles' new packaging drew its own
response from other users, some in the form of mockery. Ron Filipkowski, a
former federal prosecutor turned Democratic social media watchdog,
facetiously referred to the packing as "another sign of the apocalypse."
That post garnered a response from Democratic strategist Jeff Timmer,
jokingly referencing similar boycotts of Bud Light.
Another X user responded to a conservative post about Skittles,
questioning anger at a brand's messaging and not over child sexual abuse
cases involving religious leaders.
The current trend of conservative boycott calls reached new heights
earlier this spring, when Bud Light spurred pushback online after
partnering with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney for a
single sponsored post. The brand, which had already been seeing its
popularity decline in recent years alongside the rest of the beer market,
seemed to be the most impacted by boycott calls, with sales dropping
notably in the ensuing weeks.
Other brands have appeared less impacted long-term. Target spurred right-
wing anger after releasing its line of Pride Month merchandise in June,
something it has done annually for years. While the department store chain
suffered some hits to its popularity initially, its stock price since then
has not appeared relatively stable. The price did take a large dive in
mid-May, but experts pinned that on a general instability in the retail
sector.
Speaking with NBC News in May, Media Matters LGBTQ+ director Ari Drennen
attributed the trend to the disproportionate influence of a few figures,
such as far-right commentator Matt Walsh. She also called out the trend as
an attempt to target LGBTQ+ visibility in public life.
"He's been one of the most strident voices pushing this forward," Drennen
told NBC News about Walsh. "Now, they've been picked up kind of more
broadly throughout the right-wing media from people following that lead,
but he's been the person who's really been pushing this kind of aggressive
boycott tactic."
She added: "All of this is a coordinated attempt to make it untenable to
be specifically trans in public. And one of the ways that they've
attempted to do this is by removing any kind of political support, any
kind of corporate support—just basically making it untenable to be an ally
to the trans community. And I think that's the real connective tissue
between these."
https://www.newsweek.com/conservatives-are-furious-skittles-pro-
transgender-packaging-1819337
news:ub8rvd$1g70j$1...@dont-email.me:
> Fine. Let's kill Skittles and the parent company.
>
> The Company That Owns Skittles
> Skittles is owned by Mars Incorporated and is sold under its Mars
> Wrigley Confectionery subsidiary. This subsidiary is from the Wrigley
> Company, which Mars Inc acquired in 2008 and merged with its chocolate
> division in 2016.
>
> The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company, is an
> American multinational chewing gum company, based in the Global
> Innovation Center in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois.
Conservatives online have attempted to make Skittles the latest target for
boycotts after the brand released pro-LGBTQ+ packaging in partnership with
the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The new packaging is predominantly black and white, with the candy brand's
traditional bright colors reserved for a band of rainbow running across
it. Additionally, it features illustrations of various young people, as
well as phrases like "Black Trans Lives Matter" and "Joy Is Resistance."
This is the fourth year that Skittles has partnered with GLAAD, one of the
most prominent pro-LGBTQ+ media monitoring groups in the country. Despite
that history, this year the campaign ran afoul of a subset of online
conservatives opposed to pro-LGBTQ+, especially pro-transgender, messaging
from companies and brands. Such messaging has been commonplace for years,
but has recently faced increased backlash as conservatives have launched
renewed opposition to LGBTQ+ communities.
The pushback emerged on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with a
number of posts, including one from the popular Libs of TikTok account. In
addition to pushback against the pro-trans messaging, some users took
issue with what appeared to be a drag queen on the packaging and accused
the brand of "coming after your children."
The pushback from conservatives about Skittles' new packaging drew its own
response from other users, some in the form of mockery. Ron Filipkowski, a
former federal prosecutor turned Democratic social media watchdog,
facetiously referred to the packing as "another sign of the apocalypse."
That post garnered a response from Democratic strategist Jeff Timmer,
jokingly referencing similar boycotts of Bud Light.
Another X user responded to a conservative post about Skittles,
questioning anger at a brand's messaging and not over child sexual abuse
cases involving religious leaders.
The current trend of conservative boycott calls reached new heights
earlier this spring, when Bud Light spurred pushback online after
partnering with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney for a
single sponsored post. The brand, which had already been seeing its
popularity decline in recent years alongside the rest of the beer market,
seemed to be the most impacted by boycott calls, with sales dropping
notably in the ensuing weeks.
Other brands have appeared less impacted long-term. Target spurred right-
wing anger after releasing its line of Pride Month merchandise in June,
something it has done annually for years. While the department store chain
suffered some hits to its popularity initially, its stock price since then
has not appeared relatively stable. The price did take a large dive in
mid-May, but experts pinned that on a general instability in the retail
sector.
Speaking with NBC News in May, Media Matters LGBTQ+ director Ari Drennen
attributed the trend to the disproportionate influence of a few figures,
such as far-right commentator Matt Walsh. She also called out the trend as
an attempt to target LGBTQ+ visibility in public life.
"He's been one of the most strident voices pushing this forward," Drennen
told NBC News about Walsh. "Now, they've been picked up kind of more
broadly throughout the right-wing media from people following that lead,
but he's been the person who's really been pushing this kind of aggressive
boycott tactic."
She added: "All of this is a coordinated attempt to make it untenable to
be specifically trans in public. And one of the ways that they've
attempted to do this is by removing any kind of political support, any
kind of corporate support—just basically making it untenable to be an ally
to the trans community. And I think that's the real connective tissue
between these."
https://www.newsweek.com/conservatives-are-furious-skittles-pro-
transgender-packaging-1819337
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