Unless you've been living on Mars over the past five years you will not have failed to notice that almost every company has gone 'WOKE'. We cannot turn on the television without being preached at by companies about racism or transgender rights. From Ice Cream to nuts and bolts, no purchase comes without a lecture on left-wing ideologies these days.
This is a trend that started in the US but now infests virtually every big corporation, both sides of the atlantic. The general rule for decades in the US was that companies would avoid public sparring over political agendas whenever possible and if they did contribute to election campaigns they would spend money discreetly on candidates in both parties to hedge their bets. Something changed around 2015-2016, however.
Trump's 2016 election victory, and the success of Brexit caused an unexpected response. Neo-Marxists within academia, local governments and NGOs ramped up their efforts causing many companies and organisations to go aggressively and openly WOKE. Social Justice narratives of “equity, diversity and inclusion” now dominate corporate culture, and though leftist bias has always been a problem among Hollywood elitists and the entertainment media, things got a lot worse after 2016.
Activists seized on a little known, and almost forgotten, Governmental initiative called ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) which had been started in 2005 by the United Nations Environment Program Initiative, a small document that set out the principles to measure a company's structure against rules and regulations. A 'checklist' of things that ensured a company wasn't falling foul of US laws.
This became the perfect tool to gain leverage. Increasingly it was used as an excuse by race and gender grifters to bully corporations into adopting a WOKE agenda. a whole army of 'WOKE auditors appeared who then convinced corporations that they should participate in the scheme along with insinuation that the business would suffer financially if they were not seen to be embracing the new 'compassionate' ideology.
It is a con, but many companies feel pressured into adopting the increasingly mad ideology. Now it's not enough to have no discrimination policies for LGBTQ people, you have to publish statements that your company believes that men can magically become women. Anything less and your company will be marked down as 'Transphobic' and could (would) be the target of trans activists, NGOs, Charities and the general public, ultimately your sales would suffer.. It's a subtle but definite threat and most companies won't take the risk so go along with the ESG policy. There are a few notable exceptions such has Red Bull who have refused to participate in the nonsense, the CEO sacking the HR managers who were trying to blackmail the company into the WOKE agenda.
However, most companies have not realised that it is a con and, rather than increasing sales, it actually drives customers away. Go Woke; go broke.
Bully for Red Bull I say, even though I think it's disgusting and the smell of it makes me want to vomit!