Calls to boycott Hershey are spreading on Twitter in response to the chocolate company’s International Women’s Day Canadian campaign, which includes a trans woman. It’s the latest example of a brand generating a strong but mixed reaction to a promotional campaign that touches on cultural or societal issues. Fae Johnstone, a queer, trans and feminist activist, posted about being included in the Her for She campaign in a series of tweets on Wednesday.
Nike was the target of a boycott campaign when it featured Colin Kaepernick in an ad in 2018, after the football player became a polarizing figure for kneeling during the national anthem to raise awareness about police brutality. More recently, right-wing pundits maligned M&M’s as “woke” after the candy brand introduced a new female “spokescandy” and put her on M&M packages as part of a marketing campaign.