Tipsheet

Is Oreo About to Be the Next Bud Light?

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  May 22, 2024 6:30 AM

Oreo could be the latest big brand to get the Bud Light treatment.

The cookie company's Chicago-headquartered parent organization, Mondelēz International, will be confronted at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday over how its LGBTQ marketing could tank business and irreparably tarnish the brand.

As a shareholder in Mondelēz, formerly Kraft Foods, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a non-profit corporate watchdog, is warning the owner of Oreo (and other American household favorites): "Don't make yourself the next Bud Light."

According to a two-page proposal, which NLPC will present to shareholders this week, Mondelēz "irresponsibly" involves itself in politically divisive issues and is deeply embroiled in left-wing activism, consequently creating "reputational and financial risk."

Mondelēz is "playing with fire" by joining forces with far-left gender ideologues, NLPC says.

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NLPC's resolution calls on Mondelēz to scrutinize areas of risk where the multinational snack giant and its labels have engaged in "risky relationships" with outside organizations, such as the "ill-advised" one Oreo has with the LGBTQ pressure group PFLAG.

Since at least 2020, the cookie kingpin has been a "proud" partner of PFLAG, previously the national Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays network. PFLAG, which actively lobbies against state laws that seek to protect minors from medical butchery, pushes so-called "gender-affirming" procedures onto school-aged children as young as three years old.

PFLAG also battles to place pornographic books in public schools and libraries where children can easily access them. "This Book is Gay," which provides a guide to finding strangers on gay hook-up apps; "Gender Queer," which features an illustration of oral sex performed on a sex toy; "All Boys Aren't Blue," which contains underage incest; "Flamer," which features several obscene sexual situations; and "Lawn Boy," which describes minors performing oral sex on each other, are among the sexually explicit texts PFLAG is pushing.

PFLAG characterizes its child indoctrination efforts in public education as a stand against "book banning." In addition to supporting legislation that promotes LGBTQ literature's inclusion in K-12 classrooms, PLFAG co-sponsors a "banned books" website as part of a coalition.

In October, Oreo co-sponsored PFLAG's 2023 National Convention in Washington, D.C. First Lady Jill Biden kicked off the four-day event in an opening address that preceded PFLAG's plenary session on combatting "book bans," which was led by the American Library Association (ALA)'s president Emily Drabinski, a self-avowed "Marxist lesbian." U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Richard "Rachel" Levine was also a speaker there on the "Courageous Love in Trans Healthcare" panel.

"So should a brand such as Oreo, so identified with children, also be so deeply intertwined with the aggressive promotion of the LGBTQ tactics and agenda of militant groups like PFLAG?" NLPC asks, posing the question to Mondelēz's shareholders.

Mondelēz has pledged at least $500,000 to PFLAG. As Oreo upped its LGBTQ "allyship" antics, the cookie company hosted a pass-through fundraiser for PFLAG on Oreo's corporate website to boost PFLAG's membership and pool of donors. Accordingly, the first 2,000 customers to join PFLAG, donating a gift of $50 or more, received a limited-edition package of rainbow Oreo cookies. In 2020, when the rainbow renditions were launched, Oreo started the giveaway to "reward acts of allyship for the LGBTQ+ community." Customers were called to participate in the "#ProudParent campaign" in order to receive the promotional product. In 2021, Oreo marketed them as "OREOid for PFLAG" boxes, so consumers can "celebrate however you identify."

NLPC also points to Mondelēz financially supporting the Marxist, anti-capitalist Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. 

During the height of the George Floyd riots in 2020, Oreo, Ritz Crackers, Chips Ahoy! (all products of Nabisco, a subsidiary of Mondelēz), and Trident Gum collectively handed BLM and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) half a million dollars to "fight for racial equity." Meanwhile, many cities, especially Mondelēz's hometown of Chicago, where the economic damage is estimated to total over $60 million, are still recovering from the massive BLM-led crime wave.

In 2021, amid contention over the Georgia Election Integrity Act, Mondelēz signed an open letter opposing legislation that supposedly suppresses voting rights, suggesting that such laws are "discriminatory" against black voters, although the 2022 midterms in Georgia saw record-shattering turnout despite widespread lies spread about "Jim Crow-era" voter suppression.

NLPC is further nudging Mondelēz to examine "all" of its associations with external entities, including globalist enterprises.

Mondelēz is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Comprised of the world's elites, WEF openly advocates for Orwellian objectives like transhumanism (e.g. genetic engineering); abolishing private property ("You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy"); eating bugs; social credit systems; and "The Great Reset," a means of "reshaping the world" in the wake of COVID-19.

Mondelēz has committed itself to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target by the year 2050, among a host of other climate-alarmism pledges, such as signing the Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Business Ambition for 1.5°C, as part of a promise to cap global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, as well as joining the United Nations Race to Zero Campaign.

"Of course," NLPC's SEC filing counters, "Mondelēz does not — nor does any company ever — 'show its math' to prove how the calculations embedded in its initiatives meet these arbitrary 'net zero by 2050' or 1.5°C goals." The white paper continues:

"Likewise, there are no research reports, observational data, technical findings, or methodological approaches explained to substantiate the Company's claim to compliance with whatever these targets are. And if shareholders were to ask for a full cost-benefit analysis of whatever the Company is doing (as in, altering what would be their otherwise normal operational practices) to meet these constantly shifting climate 'goals,' it would be laughed away by the image-conscious, virtue-signaling management."

Mondelēz has many more "potentially harmful" ties, NLPC says. According to NLPC, other organizations with which Mondelēz is "tethered to one degree or another" include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Business Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations, subagencies of the United Nations, and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). In 2022, Mondelēz received a perfect score on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index, a report card that rates "LGBTQ inclusion" in workplaces across America. 

Mondelēz lists the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (UN Human Rights) as one of its "Partners and Industry Memberships." As NLPC observes, UN Human Rights "paints a moral equivalence between Hamas and the State of Israel," mostly downplaying the terrorist attacks against Israelis while more frequently condemning Israel's military response.

Ahead of the annual conference, NLPC released a video exposing Mondelēz's alliances with woke causes.

"Mondelēz International makes popular products like Chips Ahoy!, Ritz, Triscuit, and Oreo. But did you know what this snack company supports?" a voice narrating the video states. Text reading "Black Lives Matter," "Anti-Semitic UN Human Rights," and "Child Grooming" flashes across the screen, as scenes of the BLM riots, Hamas terror attacks, and kids in LGBTQ garb play.

"The maker of Oreo and Ritz has locked arms with this destructive agenda under the leadership of Mondelēz CEO Dirk Van de Put," the narration continues. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Van de Put has doled out thousands to Mondelēz's political action committee, a frequent contributor to the campaigns of top Democrats seeking reelection, such as scandal-hit Sen. Bob "Gold Bars" Menendez (D-NJ), January 6 fanatic Rep. Adam Kinzinger ("R"-IL), and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

"Defunding the police and crime waves, hateful antisemitism, sexualizing children—have products like Oreo and Ritz learned nothing about destructive partnerships?" the 57-second video concludes, overlayed by clips of Disney drag queen Nina West starring in Disney+'s LGBTQ special "Pride Celebration Spectacular" and Bud Light's "transgender" mascot Dylan Mulvaney.

Wading "unwisely" into controversial waters could prove detrimental to the company's profitability, NLPC cautions.

"Mondelēz is carelessly dashing through the consumer market dropping mines that very well could end up as tripwires for themselves," Paul Chesser, director of NLPC's Corporate Integrity Project commented. But, the PR recklessness is "not surprising," he said, since Van de Put also serves on the board of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the brewer behind Bud Light.

Chesser called the controversy AB InBev courted "the greatest" "self-inflicted" "brand destruction" in many years.

Following the disastrous Dylan Mulvaney campaign, consumers boycotted Bud Light, resulting in the light-lager label losing its status as the best-selling beer in the United States and AB InBev suffering a 28 percent dip in pre-tax profit during the second quarter of 2023. The situation only worsened with hundreds of layoffs. Overall, the toll was roughly $1.4 billion in lost sales.

Similarly, as NLPC notes in its shareholder proposal, the Target Corporation featured "tuck-friendly" swimsuits during Pride Month designed for "transgender" customers, and the pandering ploy ended disastrously. Consumer backlash cost the company $10 billion in market value over 10 days, its stock price plummeted, and Target's quarterly sales fell for the first time in six years.

The Walt Disney Company's feud with Florida over parental rights in education—along with its placement of LGBTQ themes in children's programming—caused consecutive quarters of poor earnings. After all, Florida is critical to the company's bottom line.

"Boycotts, silent or boisterous, can arise without warning," NLPC says, citing the three cases as contemporary cautionary tales.

"Once [boycotts] gain momentum, the damage can be difficult to contain. InBev, Target, and Disney are learning the hard way."

Thus, the board of Mondelēz must address "its own vulnerabilities before they become a liability," NLPC advises.

NLPC has reported Mondelēz's partnerships with leftist extremists to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to a proxy memorandum filed with the SEC in support of the shareholder proposal, NLPC is prompting Mondelēz investors to vote for "Item 5"—that is, the proposal—on the 2024 proxy ballot. Specifically, NLPC is requesting that the Audit Committee of Mondelēz's Board of Directors create an audit subcommittee study on any "troubling" affiliations to determine whether they threaten the growth and sustainability of the company. Ideally, NLPC stipulates, the inquiry would culminate in a report—to be published on the company's website—that publicly shares the subcommittee's findings by March 31, 2025.

In response, the Board of Directors has issued an opposition statement against Item 5, claiming that the board and senior management team have "robust oversight and risk management processes" in place when it comes to corporate politicking.

"We strongly believe that a greater variety of perspectives, approaches and partners brings about better business outcomes and benefits for everyone involved," the statement says, arguing that the formation of a subcommittee and additional reporting as sought in the NLPC proposal would "not add to shareholders' understanding of our [...] oversight of our DEI program."

There already exists a People and Compensation Committee that oversees such policies and practices, including "programming related to diversity," and periodically reviews "the Company's performance on diversity, equity and inclusion," the statement adds.

"The political winds have shifted from just a few years ago, yet Mondelēz is still living in the past as if nothing has changed," NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty said in a press release shared with Townhall. "Now that the extreme transgenderism push has inevitably progressed to endanger children, corporate involvement in social justice issues is more treacherous than ever."

"We urge Dirk Van de Put to wake up to the reality before it's too late or the consequences could be devastating," he warned.

NLPC says even the mainstream media is noticing "the increasing criticisms of Corporate America's fealty to the radical LGBTQ+ agenda." The Wall Street Journal is among those taking notice. "We said to Mondelēz, look...it's only by good fortune that you're not Bud Light," Chesser told The WSJ. "We're doing it to make a point and also to...raise the pain threshold for these companies who have embraced all this, this political agenda."