(Newsweek) A former top advisor to former President Donald Trumpis gearing up to sue Bud Light’s parent company (as well as a number of other brands) for allegedly tanking their shareholder value through the marketing of LGBTQ-inclusive merchandise and promos amid a large-scale conservative boycott of any brands who show public support to the community, but one expert told Newsweek why it may not work.
On Tuesday, America First Legal—an activist conservative law firm founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller—published an open call for anyone whose shares in companies like Kohl’s, Anheuser-Busch, Target or any other LGBTQ-friendly company lost value to reach out to them to join a class action lawsuit they potentially hoped to file against the companies.
“ATTENTION: Are you a shareholder of @Target, @Kohls, @abinbev, or other companies that are promoting transgender, LGBTQ and PRIDE products and diminishing shareholder value?” the post asked with a link to the organization’s email address. “We want to hear from you.”
ATTENTION: Are you a shareholder of @Target @Kohls @abinbev, or other companies that are promoting transgender, LGBTQ and PRIDE products and diminishing shareholder value?
We want to hear from you: info@aflegal.org https://t.co/mEbMWPp8jk
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 30, 2023
Newsweek has reached out to America First Legal as well as all three named companies via email for comment.
The effort, should it come to fruition, would represent another act of lawfare against the embattled Bud Light brand, which recently fell against Congressional scrutiny for allegedly violating rules regulating advertisers of alcoholic beverages after a one-off promotion it did with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney in late March.
Meanwhile, stock prices have taken a nosedive.
Anheuser-Busch—currently enduring a weeks-long boycott over the Mulvaney incident despite a longstanding history of LGBTQ inclusive advertising—has lost approximately 15 percent of its per-share value over the last month while Target, currently facing boycott calls for stocking merchandise celebrating Pride Month in recent days, has seen a more than 10 percent drop in its share price over the last five days.
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller (right) and a can of Bud Light. Miller’s activist law firm, America First Legal, wants to sue Bud Light and other brands for tanking their stock price by featuring LGBTQ iconography in its marketing. KEVIN DIETSCH/ROB CARR/NEWSWEEK PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/GETTY IMAGES
Kohls, meanwhile, attracted boycott calls from conservatives over the weekend after it was found they had begun carrying Pride-related merchandise, particularly a set of pajamas for infants acknowledging the LGBTQ community exists.
The fury has even spread to privately owned companies like Chick-Fil-A, which attracted scorn over the weekend from some conservatives over its inclusion of a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on its website, all despite a longstanding reputation of company executives’ hostility toward the LGBTQ community.
We have a problem.
Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
This is bad. Very bad.
I don’t want to have to boycott.
Are we going to have to boycott?
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) May 30, 2023
Whether Miller’s strategy to sue the companies will be successful, however, is another question.
