Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Activists from the right wing National Center for Public Policy Research ambushed PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at the company’s shareholder meeting in North Carolina yesterday, warning her that PepsiCo would be made “another Target” unless she backs off from her call to repeal the state’s anti-LGBT hate law. Nooyi, apparently, wasn’t having it. From the group’s press release, here’s an excerpt of what their spokesman said to her:
“Liberal activists pressured Pepsi to denounce the [HB2] law. And you obliged. We suggest this was a missed opportunity to bring folks together and elevate Pepsi’s brand. Your decision to speak out so forcefully against the law pleased one contingency but angered another. And that anger is palpable. In reaction to HB2, Target announced that it would open its bathrooms to any and all-comers. Over a million Americans now claim to be boycotting the chain in protest. Pepsi does not want to be the next Target.
“I have with me today a one-page framework companies can use to approach contentious issues like this. It does this by focusing on solutions and can be applied to literally every issue. I’m hopeful the company will take a look at it. I think you will find it helps the company stand up for its values in a way that brings people together and increases the public’s appreciation for Pepsi as a company and as a brand.
“The next time you are approached by a group of activists demanding that Pepsi sign a letter or denounce this or that, we simply suggest that you ask yourself, Ms. Nooyi, is there a way that I can bring both sides together and lead the community to solutions the public – and Pepsi’s customers – can get behind? Can I suggest to you that the paradigm I have suggested would help Pepsi be the community leader it clearly wants to be without making itself another Target?”
Their press release includes this lament: “Ms. Nooyi made it clear that activism on the LGBT issue is a priority for the company.”