'Shark Tank's' Kevin O'Leary says woke Target's backlash credited to social media
Investor Kevin O'Leary looks at the potential ramifications from the Target Pride collection controversy on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.'
Billionaire "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban said companies embracing "woke" ideology is just "good business," pushing back against those who say it's adversely affecting their bottom lines.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks owner spoke about the ongoing backlash against companies like Anheuser-Busch and the Target Corporation for promoting LGBTQ+ ideologies in their brands. Since promoting what many consider "woke" agendas, both companies have suffered massive losses worth billions of dollars.
While experts and industry insiders have suggested that invoking politics led to this downturn, Cuban insisted that embracing wokeness is a positive trait.
"There is a reason almost all the top ten market cap companies in the U.S. can be considered ‘woke.’ It’s good business," he said.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban pushed back against claims that "woke" politics contributes to failing business. (Tim Heitman/Getty Images)
Cuban explained, "Most CEOs have enough experience to know to just wait out the news cycle until they go to the next one."
Since Bud Light’s apparent partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney was revealed in April, the company has seen a 23.9% decrease in sales on a dollar basis compared to a year ago. Fox Business also reported that the Anheuser-Busch-owned brand’s sales fell by 24.5% in the past four weeks alone.
The Target Corporation’s market cap also lost billions of dollars since the company began displaying LGBTQ+ and Pride Month advertisements and products including "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits. On Friday, Fox Business reported that Target’s stock fell by roughly 3.1% within the last five days and approximately 18.5% in the last month.
Target stock recently fell by 3.21% within the last week. (Reuters)
Cuban, however, insisted that this "dip" was "meaningless" and unlikely due to individual stockholders taking action following the controversy.
"First a dip in market cap is meaningless," Cuban said. "You have to realize that there aren’t many individual owners of stocks — almost all ownership is via funds, and most trading is quantitative. So, it’s not like the drop is because tens of thousands of individual holders sold their stocks."
According to the Post-Gazette, Cuban suggested the new focus on woke politics could be because companies know "people want to do business with companies that care about their customers," a quality that is "an American trait he says reflects who we are as a country."
Despite Cuban’s insistence, other commentators and business owners have warned that companies embracing woke politics has been a huge mistake.
Anheuser-Busch sales having fallen by almost 24% compared to this time last year. (Alexa Moutevelis/Fox News Digital)
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"[Demand for Bud Light] has plummeted completely. No one wants it at their event anymore," Catarina Tucker, the founder of Barnastics, told Fox News Digital. "There are a couple clients that have expressed to me their feelings behind it, and it’s no longer popular."