Woke

A conservative legal group on Wednesday urged a U.S. anti-discrimination agency to investigate Kellogg Co (K.N) over workplace diversity policies that it says are unlawful, and accused the cereal maker of sexualizing its products.

This is the second complaint filed this week against a company by America First Legal, a nonprofit run by Stephen Miller, who was an adviser to former President Donald Trump.

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere.

A new app officially launched this week that's designed to help shoppers know what values a brand promotes or supports before buying a product.

The app, Veebs, was quickly embraced by conservatives, thanks in part to Veebs spokeswoman Bri Teresi promoting the app on her social media accounts. Teresi— a model and social media influencer—made headlines in April when she shared a video online of her shooting cases of Bud Light in protest of the beer brand having a branded partnership with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney.

Calls for moviegoers to boycott the new Barbie movie appear to be growing amid criticism from Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz and Ginger Gaetz, wife of Representative Matt Gaetz.

The movie stars Margot Robbie in the title role and she's joined by Ryan Gosling, who plays Barbie's companion Ken. The movie is to be released in theatres on July 21.

Social issues are creating a market downdraft for America's mainstay brands — just ask Target, Anheuser Busch, Kohl's and their collective $28.7 billion loss in market value since the beginning of April.

Why it matters: Fiercely contested cultural issues have always aroused political passions, and held sway over electoral politics.

Yet Corporate America is finding itself trapped between society's progressive impulses, and the conservative backlash.

For the past three years, Fox News has been obsessed with “wokeness.” Since the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police in May 2020, Fox News personalities and guests have applied the label  “woke” to a staggeringly wide array of topics. Few entities have escaped the network's demonization, from the military to M&M’s, New York prep schools to NASCAR, social media to mall Santas. 

In May, clothing company The North Face released a video for Pride Month featuring drag performer Pattie Gonia. The ad was similar to the one the performer appeared in for the outdoor-apparel maker a year earlier. The reaction was not. 

Within hours, calls for a boycott of the company spread on social media. “The North Face wants to be the next Bud Light!” one user wrote. “Aren’t you supposed to learn from others’ mistakes?” another user said. 

Former President Donald Trump is apparently distancing himself from the conservative trend of extensively using the word "woke."

Trump suggested that the term was overused by Republicans during a 2024 presidential campaign stop in Iowa on Thursday, complaining that "half the people" who use the term do not even know what it means.

"Woke" has become a culture war buzzword among the political right in recent years. While definitions vary, it is often used as a catchall term to describe political positions or issues of which conservatives do not approve.

Donald Trump surprised a crowd in Iowa by mocking people obsessed with using the Republican buzzword “woke”, insisting that most people cannot even define what it means.

The former president has himself regularly used the phrase to attack opponents, and just last month his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, announced the launch of a “non-woke men’s lifestyle magazine.”