That is what would infuriate me as a stockholder...there weren't trying to pull in another demographic.
They were simply virtue signalling. The WORST kind of Virtue Signalling...CORPORATE virtue signalling.
IMO, if you want to virtue signal on your own, with your own money and reputation on the line, go for it. Be stupid. Do all you want, the more the better, actually.
But when it is NOT your money, and your stupid virtue signalling affects others, you should be fired.
Let's say you are a famous conservative athlete and you use their products. You are going to change if you can, and you might actually intrinsically like the product, the way it feels, you are used to it. Or you own stock. You probably want to sell.
These people suck and should be punished by the market.
Look at what happened to "The Red Hen" (and the entire town)
Those are fair points. Someone pretty high up must have green lighted this though. I don’t this simply came from their marketing team and there is no way an engaged 3rd party PR firm would have done this on their own.