Back in July 2020, Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue came under fire from The Usual Suspects after he dared to praise then-President Donald Trump during a White House event announcing a “Hispanic Prosperity Initiative” that would, according to the Executive Order, “improve Hispanic Americans’ access to educational and economic opportunities.”
During his remarks, Unanue told the crowd of Hispanic business leaders and politicians, “We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.”
“And that’s what my grandfather did: He came to this country to build, to grow, to prosper,” Unanue continued. “And so we have an incredible builder. And we pray — we pray for our leadership, our president, and we pray for our country that we will continue to prosper and to grow.”
For this, Unanue received notice from Democrat politicos and self-important liberal celebrities alike that they were on the march to cancel him and his company after nearly 85 years of service to the Hispanic community.
But no matter how loud the calls to boycott got, Unanue remained undaunted, telling Fox News in an interview a few days after the calls started that he would not back down.
“Hell no. Hell no,” he told Laura Ingraham when pressed on if he would apologize for standing with Trump.
Americans who are sick of cancel culture mobs also sprang into action, with support pouring in for Unanue and the Goya Foods brand. Not only did Goya’s Facebook page gain over 100,000 new followers in a 24-hour timeframe after the outrage erupted, but more people pledged to #BuyGoya and acted accordingly:
Six months after the dust-up, Unanue revealed that sales had been so good (“our sales actually increased 1,000 percent”) since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued the boycott rallying cry that Goya at one point named her their honorary “employee of the month,” which significantly triggered the socialist Congresswoman.
In an update to this story, a new study on the effectiveness of social media boycotts and buycotts confirmed that the campaign to cancel Goya ultimately did not hurt sales:
Analyzing purchasing data from market research company Numerator, they found that Goya’s net sales rose by about 22% during the two weeks after the controversy erupted. The researchers also examined county-level election results from the 2020 presidential season and saw that sales rose far more in Republican-dominated counties than in Democratic counties.While the sales jump in Republican areas may have reflected the general publicity surrounding Goya, it more likely showed purchases by politically motivated first-time Goya buyers supporting Unanue’s pro-Republican message, Liaukonytė said.In Democratic-dominated counties, where the Goya brand has traditionally been more popular than in Republican areas, sales also temporarily increased despite the push to boycott, the researchers found. Boycotters in heavily Democratic counties were overshadowed by buycotters, who drove a slight short-term increase in spending on Goya products.[…]Sales data showed that about three weeks after the protests began, Goya’s overall sales reverted to pre-boycott levels, likely indicating that the media had moved on or consumers had tired of the controversy.
Because the left has to politicize everything, companies feel pressure in the immediate aftermath of “controversies” to cave to the mobs hoping they’ll leave them alone. But as history has shown us, you give an inch with the far left, and they’ll take a mile – and more.
In my opinion, the best thing for companies to do in these situations instead of capitulating is to try and tough it out if they can. Eventually, the uproar will blow over, and the media will lose interest and move on, as the study indicated was the case with Goya.
The moment you bow even in the slightest way to the mob, they know they’ve got you. This is why, as Dana Loesch once said, you should “Never bend a knee to the rage mob. Ever.”
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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