Woke agendas have caused Anheuser-Busch and Target to experience billions in losses; however, major corporations are facing pressure from powerful investment firms to push progressive causes, according to a former Anheuser-Busch executive.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s market value has reportedly dropped by $27 billion after its Bud Light promotion with LGBTQ activist Dylan Mulvaney and subsequent boycotts. Likewise, Target experienced boycotts and a 14% drop in share prices after promoting Pride month with LGBTQ products. Anson Frericks, the former president of Anheuser-Busch sales and distribution, blames the pressure from influential investment firms such as BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, which manage massive pension funds like California’s – the largest in the country.
Frericks believes California politicians influence these firms’ investments, requiring companies to adopt far-reaching commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Such influence led Frericks to leave Anheuser-Busch due to companies becoming political and dictating customer lifestyles. He points to Georgia’s passing of election integrity laws and the subsequent companies publicly opposing them. The “Big Three” – BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard – promote stakeholder capitalism, the belief that businesses should serve all stakeholders, including government agencies, activists, and NGOs. They issue guidelines on implementing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets and scores, and tie executive compensation to ESG measures.
Frericks argues that political and cultural issues should be resolved democratically, not in the board room. He calls out the dangers of ESG in fundamentally transforming the entire western world.
The excessive push for “woke” corporate agendas under pressure from major investors has cost companies billions in losses, demonstrating that the boardroom is not the place to resolve political and cultural disputes.
