Another day, another candy company melts down in the culture war. This time it’s Hershey’s Canada, who has hired a trans-rights activist to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The new “HER for SHE” campaign features a transgender woman named Fae Johnstone as part of an effort to highlight contributions of women in advancing social issues.
Photo: Fae Johnstone, the trans-rights activist hired by Hershey’s Canada to recognize women’s accomplishments
Johnstone is one of five Canadian models who appear on limited-edition candy-bar wrappers.
Johnstone recently wrote on Twitter that he (I’m sorry if this offends you, Cranky readers, but I am a simple man, not a biologist, and all I know is that he is a biological male, complete with XY chromosomes) joined the campaign to highlight “the long way to go in the fight to end misogyny, patriarchy, and gender-based violence.”
Which strikes me as ironic, as from where I sit, the ‘trans’ movement is largely destroying women’s sports and beauty pageants, and making biological women feel uncomfortable in their own restrooms and locker rooms.
(Oh, and also introducing elementary-aged school children to drag shows and sex toys.)
Although the campaign has been met with criticism, Hershey’s appears to be standing by its man and has no plans to pull or change the campaign.
In the meantime, the stunt has given Jeremy Boreing of The Daily Wire a new business idea.
Introducing Jeremy’s Chocolate
Remember Jeremy’s Razors and the over-the-top viral ad that introduced it last year? Then this 0:49-second web ad for Jeremy’s Chocolate will look very familiar:
“We have two kinds [of chocolate],” Boreing says in the ad. “SheHer, and HeHim. One of ’em’s got nuts. If you need me to tell you which one it is, keep giving your money to Hershey’s.”
According to The Daily Wire, Jeremy’s Chocolate sold more than 200,000 chocolate bars within 24 hours of launching the product.
Explaining his reason for entering the chocolate business, Boreing said, “The people asked and we answered . . . As long as corporations and institutions across America continue to alienate half the country, The Daily Wire will continue building alternatives. Stop giving your money to woke chocolate companies that hate you.”
This latest culture-war dustup in the candy business follows the abrupt retirement of M&M’s woke “spokescandies” amid consumer backlash in January.
Ahem. Is anyone else in the marketing field thinking about changing professions, or is it just me?
Share your thoughts on “Candy culture wars: Hershey’s hires trans-rights activist for International Women’s Day.”
OK, Cranky readers. What do you think? Is Hershey’s new Canadian ad campaign a smart business move and a positive affirmation for women? Or not? Share your thoughts below and please, keep it classy.
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Anybody remember or heard of an old group called The Refreshments? (Still around but under another name). But they had an applicable song called Buy America. Anyway, I’m now living in Indian Territory and just down the road from a local chocolatier that produces chocolate that surpasses Hershey’s. And to my knowledge, that company does not promote getting your Ying-Yang lopped off!! Buying American, buying local, buying American Indian (yes, I said it!!).
I agree with buying local. Problem with “buying American” is, “American” no longer means what it used to.
I call this the hot new “anti-woke” diet. Just think about it, if you swear off woke companies, you essentially swear off all the crap you shouldn’t eat! Since this stuff pisses me off so much, I find it extremely easy to adhere to! This one will really only smart around Halloween as it’s the only time I let myself enjoy Snickers, Milky Way, Reese’s, somewhat unchecked. However, we are already brainstorming ideas for the kids- if anyone has ideas, feel free to share! I guess we could do good old fashioned lollipops not connected to Hershey or Mars brands. I’d do See’s Lollipops, but that would be pretty pricey. 🙂
Good ideas here! I agree, most of us can do without a lot of the crap produced by these companies, and we’d probably be better off without it anyway. Hitting companies like Hershey’s and Harry’s (and Google and Facebook and Apple and General Motors and Disney and Levi’s and Netflix and Starbucks and on and on and on) in their profit margins is definitely the way to get their attention.
We may not like it, and it may hurt a little, but we all have to be willing to sacrifice a little comfort and convenience if we wish to have any chance at all of tipping the scales back to balance.
This woke crap needs to be stopped. The only way is to put the democrat leftists out of control.
I’ll just say this, Martha: We’re in a hell of a spot when a person can be labeled a misogynist for wanting to protect women from biological males who want to dress up and surgically alter their bodies to be more like women. Why do so many women support this? Where are the women’s rights advocates? What’s happened to feminism? Hey, I just work in advertising. If anyone can help me understand, please, enlighten me.