/sarc
Posted on 07/20/2021 7:42:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
Last week, the CEO of Black Rifle Coffee, Evan Hafer, gave a long-form interview to Jason Zengerle for the New York Times Magazine. I don’t know what he expected to achieve by the exercise, but I’m pretty certain that what he accomplished represented a significant deviation from the plan.
The piece framed Black Rifle Coffee as a “Starbucks for conservatives” and promoted the piece by saying that the company was trying to distance itself from some of its customers. Note that Black Rifle Coffee retweeted this tweet and that usually means that the tweet met with the approval of the person sending it:
============================================================================================================ Black Rifle Coffee, which offers an AK-47 Espresso blend, has explicitly presented itself as a troll-y, MAGA alternative to Starbucks. The company doubled its sales last year. It’s also trying to distance itself from some of its new customers. https://t.co/SX1RWupqsS
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 14, 2021
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Then the article proceeded with some newsworthy quotes by Hafer that Andy Ngo helpfully passed along.
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“It’s such a repugnant group of people.”
The executives behind @blckriflecoffee, a coffee and lifestyle brand hugely popular with conservatives, has some choice words to describe part of its customer base. https://t.co/BxTpq0kfQY pic.twitter.com/mbdrBSpwGs
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 16, 2021
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The pushback from the right was pretty amazing; you can read my take on the brew-ha-ha, sorry, brouhaha here Is Black Rifle Coffee About to Throw Its Customer Base Under the Bus for Fun and Profit? Things got heated on Twitter, and some interesting people ended up blocked by Black Rifle Coffee’s social media flunkies.
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Lmao what a bunch of soft wankers pic.twitter.com/6ykxieEpoT
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) July 18, 2021
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Here's something I never expected…
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Amusingly, I was the guy telling my con friends, furious at #BlackRifleCoffee's perceived betrayal of its customers by dancing like organ grinder monkeys for the mainstream media, to give BRCC a chance to tell us its side.
I guess it has. pic.twitter.com/7dymLxELvi
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) July 18, 2021
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One of the more interesting revelations was that Hafer took his cues from the Pentagon’s “anti-extremist” bureaucracy.
Hafer and Best were talking in a glorified supply closet in the Salt Lake City offices, where potential designs for new coffee bags were hanging on the wall. One of them featured a Renaissance-style rendering of St. Michael the Archangel, a patron saint of military personnel, shooting a short-barreled rifle. In Afghanistan and Iraq, Hafer knew a number of squad mates who had a St. Michael tattoo; for a time, he wore into battle a St. Michael pendant that a Catholic friend gave him. But while the St. Michael design was being mocked up, Hafer said he learned from a friend at the Pentagon that an image of St. Michael trampling on Satan had been embraced by white supremacists because it was reminiscent of the murder of George Floyd. Now any plans for the coffee bag had been scrapped. “This won’t see the light of day,” Hafer said.
Think about that. An iconic Biblical figure, the angel who will lead the forces of Good to its final victory over Evil (see Revelation 12:7-9), is labeled an extremist symbol by some toad in the Pentagon, and the company immediately kowtows.
By yesterday, things were hot enough that Hafer felt like he had to issue a personal response.
After his disastrous response to Kyle Rittenhouse wearing a Black Rifle Coffee t-shirt when he was released from jail, he probably should have sent out a substitute on this play because I’m not sure that his answer does him a lot of good.
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A message from our CEO @EvanHafer. #brcc #americascoffee pic.twitter.com/QCAvGQezXo
— Black Rifle Coffee (@blckriflecoffee) November 22, 2020
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These are the main points.
1. He didn’t make derogatory statements about his customers or conservatives.
2. The conversation he had with the New York Times Magazine reporter was in the contest of racism and antisemitism in America in light of an organized attack on Hafer last year because of “my last name and my heritage.” From this, I’m assuming that Hafer is Jewish.
3. “We were purely discussing that.”
4. He never conflated “those groups with conservatives.”
5. He is a conservative.
6. He has no personal problem with St. Michael and carried a St. Michael’s medal while on active duty.
7. He does not know why Defense labeled the St. Michael image as extremist, and they are awaiting “clarifcation” from Defense.
8. He gave an interview to the New York Times because he has a “responsibility to give reporters an objective story about the company.”
9. He says he knew the “odds of the New York Times being objective were fairly slim but we gave them the opportunity.”
10. He says he tried to highlight the veterans’ programs that Black Rifle Coffee is involved with, but they “chose to write a salacious headline.”
11. “There is no chance in hell that I’m going to talk sh** about conservatives to the New York Times, it ain’t going to happen.”
12. It is more difficult than ever to “navigate the culture war.”
13. “We are about having a positive impact on our communities, not about who’s right and who’s wrong.”
Hafer seems to believe what he’s saying, and I don’t know the man, so I’ll take him at his word on his intent.
Having said that, here are some observations.
Re-reading the article with Hafer’s context, it is clear that Hafer did mention the attacks on him and tried to highlight his commitment to serving veterans. However, it is equally clear that Zengerle was not interested in that story.
There is zero linkage in the story between Hafer’s comments about “repugnanat people” and the antisemitic attacks on him. Instead, the article reads, at least to me, as though he’s describing Kyle Rittenhouse’s supporters in that manner.
“You can’t let sections of your customers hijack your brand and say, ‘This is who you are,’” Best told me. “It’s like, no, no, we define that.” The Rittenhouse episode may have cost the company thousands of customers, but, Hafer believed, it also allowed Black Rifle to draw a line in the sand. “It’s such a repugnant group of people,” Hafer said. “It’s like the worst of American society, and I got to flush the toilet of some of those people that kind of hijacked portions of the brand.” Then again, what Hafer insisted was a “superclear delineation” was not too clear to everyone, as Munchel’s choice of headgear vividly demonstrated.
There is a vast disconnect between Hafer’s explanation of the Saint Michael incident and the article’s account. According to Hafer, they don’t know the reason that imagery of St. Michael casting Satan into Hell is forbidden, and the coffee bag design is on hold. However, according to the article, they know why, and the bag design is dead.
In my post, I reference Robert Conquest’s Second Law of Politics, to wit, “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.” Hafer claims to be conservative but, as best I could glean from his explanation, he doesn’t claim the company is conservative or supports conservative causes. In fact, he says he can’t be bothered to argue about what is right and what is wrong. There is a reason for that.
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As Black Rifle Coffee blocks conservatives, it's important to understand that CEO @EvanHafer hired ActBlue Dem donors to run his IT and social media. pic.twitter.com/XfncLVYN1e
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) July 19, 2021
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If key senior staff are donors to ActBlue, your company is not a conservative enterprise.
Hafer is playing a dangerous game and not playing it all that well. His company is a lifestyle brand that will flop the moment the buzz and image about the company stop comporting with its actions. My personal view is that any conservative giving an interview to the New York Times or Washington Post deserves whatever happens to them. In this case, the variance between Hafer’s version of events and the article is serious enough that some sort of clarification needs to be issued in writing by someone. On the plus side, you can see the traces of Hafer’s version of events in the New York Times Magazine story, but they aren’t always easy to find. The question is, how much longer will Black Rifle Coffee’s customers continue to take Hafer at his word?
I would discount any story coming from the NY Times. It has shown itself and its minions of pseudojournalists to be arbiters of deceit and untruths, with no hidden agenda.
Good luck with ANY conservative that thinks that he can get good press from NYT.
Having said my thoughts, i imagine i am not a target market since i rarely drink coffee.
“Hafer said he learned from a friend at the Pentagon that an image of St. Michael trampling on Satan had been embraced by white supremacists because it was reminiscent of the murder of George Floyd.”
What a bunch of BS.
I won’t do business with a person who can shake hands with Klintesterone without puking.
They just opened a store here in Destin, FL.
I will not patronize it. But I will watch to see how long it takes to go belly up...................
/sarc
+1
This guy runs a $100 million sales company. He did not fall of the turnup truck in front of NYT HQ and decide to give an interview.
This was a calculated move to reposition his brand and make it more palatable to Wall Street corporatists who can fund the growth of his company.
We saw this movie before with Chick-Fil-A. Going woke hasn’t hurt them and I don’t expect it will do much to black rifle because most people are just not paying attention.
Hafer has mishandled this ....no question....he is on record claiming Rittenhouse appears innocent to him
Lesson here is avoid issues
Stay on focus
Product
Brand
Patriotism
Do not talk to the enemy
He has hired poor consult in this arena and to manage their social media apparati
It's just four simple words. Try and remember them.
Get woke go broke.
WTF is he even consulting with DoD on what images he can use?
Also, why the arranged interview with NYT Magazine and their compulsory discussion on "race?" Its all so bizarre.
Methinks he still is operating as an undercover DIA/CIA agent
Lefties are masters at pressuring conservative to disown their own.
I have always considered Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to be a conservative alternative to Starbucks. Their coffee is better and they support our troops.
After the Rittenhouse issue, Black Rifle left a horrible taste in my mouth. The thought of drinking another cup of that overpriced swill makes me puke.
BTW, coffee is coffee. Everyone buys their beans from the same growers. I don’t need to get my coffee from a company that doesn’t want me as their customer; that doesn’t want me wearing their t shirts or drinking out of their cups.
The fact they declared proud boys as racist and anti-Semitic, while giving the real anti-Semites a pass, shows they were attacking and criticizing conservative activists. I belonged to their coffee club only because I supported their cause. I canceled.
He’s a CIA spook. His opinions means less than dirt which is what his overpriced coffee tastes like.
There's a difference. Chick-Fil-A is good food. At a good price and excellent service.
I've not had Black Rifle, but others have said it's not all that.
Don’t these conservative companies know to record all interviews with the MSM? Never trust them. Ever. Have your backup ready when they begin their lies.
The conservative “Starbucks”.
So the coffee taste burnt and generally just nasty?
Nah, I think Ill pass.
I think there's a bit of a difference between the two companies. Chick-Fil-A was always a chicken sandwich company first. The cultural stuff was nice, but that wasn't what sold their product. What sold the product was that it was just much, much better than most of their competition in terms of taste. So...people keep going back for the chicken, not the politics. Even some leftists go their for that same reason.
Black Rifle's entire branding was based on conservatism. The coffee itself isn't particularly special. So if that conservative branding gets destroyed, all of the customers attracted by that branding no longer have a reason to put forth the effort to order from them. They'll just buy it in the store like they did before without regard to politics.
The Devil, as depicted here, is not George Floyd... It is Colin Kaepernick!
And god for St Michael to take him to the ground. Mike sacked him!
Lefties are masters at pressuring conservative to disown their own.
Especially when they do it to themselves:
The piece framed Black Rifle Coffee as a “Starbucks for conservatives” and promoted the piece by saying that the company was trying to distance itself from some of its customers. Note that Black Rifle Coffee retweeted this tweet and that usually means that the tweet met with the approval of the person sending it:
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