Nearly 60% of Americans want big business to stay out of politics.

The majority of Americans want big businesses to stay out of politics, according to a new poll conducted by Gallup and Bentley University.

Its survey has revealed up to 60 percent of Americans believe that companies should not take a public stance on social or political issues.

Despite the increasing trend of corporate activism, Americans appear to be growing weary of business injecting politics into their messaging, particularly when it is regarding divisive issues.

While some business leaders have openly embraced woke ideologies, this poll suggests this approach may negatively impact public approval of the company.

Americans are more inclined to support businesses taking a stance on issues like climate change (55 percent), mental health (52 percent), free speech (49 percent) and healthcare (48 percent).

Conversely, they are least likely to support corporate involvement in areas like abortion (26 percent), political candidates (19 percent) and religion (15 percent).

When it comes to specific issues, only 37 percent of Americans believe businesses should take a stance on LGBTQ+ issues, 45 percent on racial issues and 39 percent on gun laws.

Just 34 percent believe businesses should be involved with issues like immigration policy and a mere 27 percent on international conflicts.

Several major US corporations, including Target, Adidas and Bud Light, face significant backlash to woke advertising campaigns.

Both Target and Bud Light are examples of companies that went ‘woke’ and experienced immediate backlash which they are still attempting to recover from.

Bud Light may never recover from the controversy that cost the company a loss of nearly $400 Million in US Sales.

In response to the devastating loss, Anheuser-Busch CEO Said: ‘They Want To Enjoy Their Beer Without A Debate,’ in August.

Sales of Bud Light beer are down by over a quarter, year on year, after the disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The beer brand presented Mulvaney with personalized cans showing her face, which she promoted on April 1.

Fans of the beer erupted in fury. A boycott was declared, Kid Rock used Bud Light cans as target practice, and $5 billion was wiped off the value of the brand. Two senior marketing executives have taken leave of absence amid the fiasco.

On Sunday, Beer Business Daily reported that the beer’s off-premise sales volume – meaning the amount of beer sold outside of restaurants and bars – had fallen by 26.1 percent from a year earlier in the week ended April 22.

Sales were down 21.1 percent in the prior week. While competitors, Coors Light and Miller Lite, saw consumers turning to their brands as both have had an increase in sales.

So far this year, Bud Light volumes are down 8 percent.

‘The shocking deterioration of Bud Light Blue’s market share continued apace through the third week of April – and actually somehow worsened.

‘We’ve never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short period of time,’ Beer Business Daily wrote on its website.

Coors Light’s volume was up 13.3 percent for the same time period, and Miller Lite rose 13.6 percent.

Last week senior executives at parent company Anheuser-Busch held a closed-door meeting with distributors in Washington, DC, where they laid out future plans – and promised to ‘spend heavily’ on Bud Light to salvage its public image, according to reports.

Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said that spending on the brand ‘fell off a cliff last year,’ but Anheuser-Busch leaders are promising to rectify the situation, New York Post reported.

The ‘stunning collapse’ of retail giant Target following its controversial LGBT Pride month product release should serve as a warning to CEOs considering turning to woke marketing campaigns, Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has cautioned.

Target has lost over $4 billion in market value in just under three weeks following the scandal, which included offering a ‘tuck friendly’ female swimwear line.

O’Leary said the ‘unprecedented’ decline shows the company’s failure to prioritize its investors over appeasing modern woke standards, including listening to diversity officers instead of business savvy executives.

‘On the other hand, the job of a business — particularly from the perspective of an investor — and those that are retired, for example, that own the S&P 500 or own Target stock – are concerned that maybe they’re losing their way in terms of what the prime objective is: your customers, your employees, and your shareholders,’ he told Fox News at the time.

‘The stunning collapse of Target market cap is almost unprecedented for its own stock in 20 years, and how this happened is being scrutinized by lots of other boards right now,’ he said.

‘If you start to get too distant or too far away from the primary mandate, the market has proven itself to really, really punish you.

‘And it’s woken up all kinds of boards.’

O’Leary said the outrage by customers over recent controversies, such as Bud Light’s disastrous campaign with trans star Dylan Mulvaney, is heightened by social media.

‘This is displaying the power of something most board of directors never thought about – social media,’ he said.

‘When you can’t control the message anymore through social media, which is clearly obvious, you better figure out what message you’re putting out before it ever gets out there.

‘We almost need a new committee on boards. We have committees for risk, compensation, we’ve got compliance committees.

‘We need a communications and media committee to advise the rest of the board who don’t even have Twitter accounts or don’t have Facebook or don’t use LinkedIn.’

Written by Noa Halff for The Daily Mail ~ October 4, 2023