Having sat in the board room while decisions were made I can attest that the number one concern when dealing with the public is to avoid negative publicity. The people in charge will cave to anything to avoid a negative image. They don’t want protesters or reporters or (God forbid!) television news people talking about their company. These aren’t, for the most part, people who have a social statement to make. They want their bonus and that’s about the sum of their commitment to society and culture. “Activists” understand this and thus threaten to bring negative publicity to bear if the company doesn’t (fill-in-the-blank.)
By the time somebody has gotten to the levers of power, they have learned all the rules. They blend in to their jobs by doing, or not doing, what the people before them did or didn’t do. Activism for some cause that doesn’t lead to a better bottom line is not one of the behaviors you find in the board room.
That approach clearly worked out well for Delta. To the tune of -$40 million a year!
Correct. Most significantly, they have been advised by the bean-counters that the sales figures for the 18 - 21 demographics are so small, that the company can make a social statement with little risk to the bottom line.
This is how Jesse Jackson got paid all those years.
I will not buy any from Dick’s, Academy is cheaper.