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| Dylan Mulvaney |
She’s back… The National Legal and Policy Center is sponsoring a resolution at the May 22 annual meeting of Mondelez International to make sure that the $36B chocolate and cookie maker doesn’t suffer the same fate that Bud Light did after it retained the services of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The resolution concedes that shareholders expect companies to engage in issues that affect their bottom lines, such as taxation and regulation.
But many companies get caught up “in matters that are immaterial, or even detrimental to their businesses, often causing damage to their brands,” according to the resolution.
The NLPC cites the backlash that rocked Bud Lite after it featured Mulvaney, a move the cost the beer its status as the No. 1 brew in the US, and triggered a decline in profits for parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The organization expressed concern that Mondelez’s iconic cookie brand, Oreo, formed a venture with the LGBTQ activist group PFLG, and lists the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commission as one of its partners.
The NLPC says the UN group paints a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel by “mostly downplaying the vicious and unprovoked attacks of the terrorists, while more frequently condemning Israel’s military response in Gaza.”
The resolution calls for creation of a committee to examine the risks and consequences related to tie-ups with external organizations/people to determine if they threaten the growth and sustainability of the company.
Mondelez opposes the measure because it claims to have robust oversight and risk management processes in place.
The company believes “in inclusive marketing and work to mobilize brands and marketing partners to drive change, equity and inclusion across a wide variety of topics and viewpoints.”
Dylan is the epitome of inclusive marketing.
Getting better all the time. The financial services sector is slowly regaining the public trust, which was shattered following the global meltdown, according to a supplement report from the Edelman Trust Barometer.
Released May 7, the report found that 62 percent of respondents trust financial services companies to “do the right thing.”
Trust levels are highest in developing countries such as India (83 percent) and Thailand (81 percent) and lower in developed nations like Germany (41 percent) and France (45 percent).
The US trust level weighed in at 55 percent.
Banks (66 percent) are the most trusted segment of the financial service sector.
Personal insurance firms (62 percent), property/casualty insurers (60 percent), financial advisories (55 percent), investment management (54 percent), fintech (52 percent) and cryptocurrency operations (38 percent) follow.
Lex Suvanto, CEO of Edelman Smithfield, acknowledged that financial services companies have made great strides in rebuilding public trust.
They can maintain momentum by “building communications strategies about how they are improving the financial well-being and creating stronger financial systems and ensure that it is effectively conveyed to their key stakeholders,” said Suvanto.
Chill, Qu… The PR chief of Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, is sorry for posting videos on the country’s version of TikTok praising the company for its work-till-you-drop culture.
The apology is a tad late as China’s state-run Economic Review reported on May 9 that she is out of Baidu
Qu Jing had warned Baidu colleagues not to take any time off during weekends, and boasted that she works so hard that she doesn’t even know what grade her son is in.
She also threatened to retaliate about staffers who complained about her management style, saying she could ruin careers via a simple letter.
Qu took down the videos after they were ridiculed as being out of touch in a changing China.
"I apologize that the inappropriate videos led to the public's misunderstanding of my company's values and corporate culture,” she wrote.
Qu pledged to learn from her mistakes and improve the way that she communicates.
Due to the widespread coverage (Financial Times, BBC, CNN, The Guardian) of Qu’s reign of terror, she should consider another line of work.
She’s toast in the world of PR.
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