New Poll: Anti-Choice Political Donations Make Female Consumers and Consumers of Color Less Likely to Buy or Use a Company’s Product
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, October 28, 2020
CONTACT: Jessica Williams, jlw.williams@protonmail.com
New Poll: Anti-Choice Political Donations Make Female Consumers and Consumers of Color Less Likely to Buy or Use a Company’s Product
Survey is Part of #ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet Calling for Accountability at AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, UltraViolet released a poll surveying adults ages 18-45 nationwide on their consumer spending opinions of brands who gave to conservative, anti-choice politicians and related PACs as part of UltraViolet’s #ReproReceipts corporate accountability campaign. The companies highlighted in the campaign — AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber — all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women’s rights and equality overall, including several notable members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Republicans who this week voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.
The #ReproReceipts campaign highlights the discrepancy between corporate America’s public statements in support of gender equity and their political giving to extreme anti-choice candidates. These contributions not only work against equality for women, but also racial equity and justice. The poll asks respondents to react to this misalignment of purported corporate values and political giving.
More than 80 percent of millennial consumers believe it is important to buy from companies that align with their values, according to a recent report on consumer behavior. Yet, outside of public statements, buyers often don’t know where their frequented brands’ values actually lie. This survey solidifies that, if given the political giving receipts, consumer behavior and opinions of some of the largest consumer-facing retailers and brands will change as a result.
UltraViolet found that a majority of respondents had the following views of these six companies’ giving records:
- Nearly 7 in 10 younger consumers say they have serious concerns about corporate contributions to anti-choice political candidates and PACs that helped to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett before Inauguration Day.
- Anti-choice political donations make them less likely to buy or use that company’s product — even more so for women, younger consumers and people of color.
- Unfavorable impressions grow across the board when consumers are educated about anti-choice corporate political contributions.
“The majority of the world’s largest public companies have made public commitments to diversity and inclusion, but most have not reckoned with how those commitments are misaligned with their own giving to anti-women and anti-equality politicians,” said Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet. “This survey tells us that with receipts in hand, consumers are ready to take their business elsewhere if there continues to be a disconnect between corporate social responsibility efforts that are just PR posturing and actually doing right by their employees and customers.”
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UltraViolet is a community of more than one million people that drives feminist cultural and political change. Through people power and strategic advocacy, we work to improve the lives of women and girls of all identities and backgrounds, and all people impacted by sexism, by dismantling discrimination and creating a cost for sexism.