Ted Cruz Sees an Issue with Target Boycott: This Is Much Different from Bud Light
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Friday that he doesn’t believe a boycott against the retail giant Target over transgender marketing will have the same effect as the one against Bud Light.
While speaking on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” he expressed his doubt in conservatives’ ability to stick with ongoing action against Target.
Recently, both Target and Bud Light have been hit with major boycotts over their promotion of LGBTQ content.
In early April, Bud Light collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney as he was celebrating his “first year of womanhood.”
As Mulvaney is a 26-year-old man, the promotion of transgender ideology drew fury from much of the public – leading to a boycott that has badly damaged Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch.
Dylan Mulvaney buys Barbie dolls and highlights “Days of Girlhood.”
Why would Bud Light promote someone whose content caters to young children? pic.twitter.com/JL9iNWRjUZ
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) May 24, 2023
Target has also suffered boycotts over its promotion of LGBTQ-themed clothing and items for teens, younger children and even babies. The move has resulted in a loss of $10 billion in Target’s market value in 10 days, according to the New York Post.
Target’s “Pride” section: pic.twitter.com/fmPv9HR0EZ
— Vision4theBlind (@Vision4theBlind) May 23, 2023
Cruz explained in his podcast that, unlike the boycott of Bud Light – which has lasted two months now – Target will likely pull through faster due to the lack of alternatives for shoppers.
“What really came to bite Bud Light is, that wasn’t a hard boycott,” Cruz said, according to Newsweek. “It’s difficult for nobody on planet Earth, if you were going to order a Bud Light, to say, ‘I’ll have a Coors Light.’ That’s a very simple substitution …
“Target? We’ll see how prolonged and easy a substitution it is,” he said, noting that while there are some other options, such as Walmart, many shoppers may not want to drive the extra distance.
And as some social media users have noted, Walmart locations also feature gay-themed “pride month” displays.
It is interesting that they are boycotting Target because they have Pride merch displayed, when this display was at my local Walmart (which I only shop because we don’t have a Target nearby). pic.twitter.com/7aKrDjtZH5
— Kanu Mendoza 🏳️🌈🇺🇸🇺🇦🌊🖖🏻 ✊🏻 (@Seawolf308) May 24, 2023
So now @Walmart is grooming young children to be gay! Hey – it’s a rainbow parade!!! You’ll be cooler if you’re queer too!
This is sick.
Truly grooming – and sick.
There is a big difference in “acceptance” vs grooming. https://t.co/vnMUWJHIn0
— Mimi Joeckel (@cantcancelmimi) May 28, 2023
“Targets are located in a lot of areas and very convenient for a lot of shoppers. So we’ll see if this becomes a persistent consequence or not,” Cruz said, Newsweek reported.
He also expressed doubt in conservatives’ ability to stick with the boycott, pointing out that previous attempts to boycott the NFL and NBA didn’t last long.
This, he said, is simply because people “really love going to sports events and cheering on their teams,” and care less about the boycotts.
Similarly, Cruz referenced the boycott of Disney, which started over a public dispute with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ passing of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act.
“You can be annoyed at Disney, but if your kids really want to go to Disney World, that can be hard to say no to,” Cruz said. “There’re not a lot of alternatives. There’s Six Flags, but Disney World is a pretty unique offering.”
He added, “Disney’s movies. I mean, look, there’s only one ‘Snow White’ or ‘Cinderella,’ or ‘Toy Story’ from Pixar. That is a difficult product for many people to give up permanently.”
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