Woke Coke Pauses Diversity Plan

[Canton Dawg]

‘Woke’ Coke Pauses Diversity Plan After ‘Intense Backlash,’ Plan Author Suddenly Resigns

Coca-Cola has pressed pause on a controversial “diversity plan” after what Fox News described as an “intense backlash,” and the company’s general counsel, Bradley Gayton, who authored the plan, has now abruptly resigned.
As The Daily Wire reported back in February, “Coca-Cola debuted a new policy this year implementing a diversity quota for the outside counsel it retains, saying it will only hire law firms that commit to providing 15 percent of billed time from black attorneys, higher than the percentage of African Americans in the U.S. population.” Law firms working with the soft drink giant, were also required, under the new policy, to “commit that at least 30% of each of billed associate and partner time will be from diverse attorneys, and of such amounts at least half will be from Black attorneys.”

The soft drink titan also passed the “diversity” on to its employees. In a series of slides leaked to media, a company working with Coca-Cola to provide corporate training encouraged Coke employees to “be less white” in an effort to create a more welcoming and racially diverse workplace.
Gayton reportedly authored the law firm diversity plan after viewing websites for firms providing Coca-Cola’s outside counsel and seeing mostly white headshots.
“I write you with a heavy heart,” Gayton said in a letter to outside counsel firms, according to The Daily Wire. “Gayton declared that Coca-Cola’s previous efforts to promote diversity ‘are not working’ as apparent from the ‘alarming number of new partner headshots’ with an ‘obvious lack of diversity.’”

‘The hard truth is that our profession is not treating the issue of diversity and inclusion as a business imperative,” Gayton wrote in his letter. “We have a crisis on our hands and we need to commit ourselves to specific actions that will accelerate the diversity of the legal profession.”
Legal experts, Fox Business noted, questioned “whether Gayton’s policies violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers can’t treat people differently based on their race.”
“Legal defense foundation Project on Fair Representation published an open letter to Coca-Cola last week warning that Coke’s outside counsel ‘racial quota requirements’ are ‘unlawful,'” the outlet added.

Republican leaders announced boycotts and state and federal legislators warned that if Coca-Cola and other high-profile corporations did not stay out of politics that they could lose tax breaks at the state and federal levels. It’s not clear whether the boycotts or the threats of rescinding tax breaks worked, but Coca-Cola’s stock was down around 12% in January. The company plans to report first-quarter profits shortly.
In late April, Coca-Cola quietly announced that Gayton had departed his role as general counsel with a “golden parachute” — an unusual event given that Gayton had worked for the company for less than a year.
“As part of the [separation] agreement, [Gayton] will receive a $4 million sign-on payment and a monthly consulting fee of $666,666, beginning this month and ending April 2022,” the company reported, according to BusinessWire, which listed Gayton’s new role as helping to “drive certain key objectives,” without further explanation.

Notably, the new general counsel for Coca-Cola, Monica Howard Douglas, who was hired from inside the Coca-Cola family, is unlikely to carry forward with Gayton’s plan and would say only that the company has “paused” its diversity hiring plan.
‘Douglas reportedly offered a few hints about the fate of Gayton’s diversity plan, though concrete details remain elusive,” Law.com said on the hire.
“When asked about Gayton’s diversity initiative, Douglas indicated that Coca-Cola was ‘taking a pause for now’ but would likely salvage some parts of the plan,” the outlet noted, citing a source.  Douglas didn’t provide any additional details about what would remain and what would be scrapped.
“She said she … plans to use some of it, but everything is being evaluated. They plan to adopt some of [Gayton’s] strategies and passions. Everything was, ‘More to come,’” Law.com’s source noted.

[BaconHound]

Not the first time a major brand has courted a certain demographic and won’t be the last.  Unfortunately, our lives are hyperpoliticized and I don’t see that changing.

[nickers]

[Canton Dawg]

57 minutes ago, BaconHound said:

Not the first time a major brand has courted a certain demographic and won’t be the last.  Unfortunately, our lives are hyperpoliticized and I don’t see that changing.

It’s not so much going after a certain demographic, it’d politicizing your brand.

When I owned my business, I told my staff there are 2 things you don’t discuss with customers.

That was politics and religion, anything else was fair game.

[BaconHound]

1 hour ago, Canton Dawg said:

It’s not so much going after a certain demographic, it’d politicizing your brand.

When I owned my business, I told my staff there are 2 things you don’t discuss with customers.

That was politics and religion, anything else was fair game.

Coke is multi-national.  Appealing to certain political movements/agenda will help recruit spokespersons and it may bring in customers.  I personally wouldn’t be swayed but some people may.
 

Climate change has been highly politicized and many people purchase goods based on that.  

[Canton Dawg]

1 minute ago, BaconHound said:

Coke is multi-national.  Appealing to certain political movements/agenda will help recruit spokespersons and it may bring in customers.  I personally wouldn’t be swayed but some people may.
 

Climate change has been highly politicized and many people purchase goods based on that.  

But when you politicize your brand, you automatically alienate roughly half of your customer base.

[BaconHound]

Just now, Canton Dawg said:

But when you politicize your brand, you automatically alienate roughly half of your customer base.

I think you are giving it too much credit.  The people who typically boycott products one way or the other are a vocal minority.  Brands may take a hit but Coca-Cola isn’t going anywhere soon.

[Canton Dawg]

3 minutes ago, BaconHound said:

I think you are giving it too much credit.  The people who typically boycott products one way or the other are a vocal minority.  Brands may take a hit but Coca-Cola isn’t going anywhere soon.

I agree with your sentiments regarding the demise of a 100 plus year old company.

However, if their philosophy about catering to the “Woke Crowd” put their revenue at risk, it was enough to make them rethink their position.

[BaconHound]

24 minutes ago, Canton Dawg said:

I agree with your sentiments regarding the demise of a 100 plus year old company.

However, if their philosophy about catering to the “Woke Crowd” put their revenue at risk, it was enough to make them rethink their position.

I think losing LeBron made them overreact.  Using the “woke crowd” is just more non-sensical labeling.  Their plan was an attempt to join the equality struggle.  It appears their plan wasn’t very well executed.

[nickers]

3 hours ago, BaconHound said:

I think losing LeBron made them overreact.  Using the “woke crowd” is just more non-sensical labeling.  Their plan was an attempt to join the equality struggle.  It appears their plan wasn’t very well executed.

Well outright telling people to be "Less White" isn't quite the way to endear yourself to others to join the cause... As for myself.. I'm boycotting all products made by or , affiliated with Coke

[DieHardBrownsFan]

I quit drinking rum and coke.  Now its rum and pepsi.  MAGA.

[nickers]

1 hour ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

I quit drinking rum and coke.  Now its rum and pepsi.  MAGA.

 

Nazdravlje!!

[BaconHound]

14 hours ago, nickers said:

Well outright telling people to be "Less White" isn't quite the way to endear yourself to others to join the cause... As for myself.. I'm boycotting all products made by or , affiliated with Coke

Whether or not you believe the press release by Coca-Cola on the topic is your choice.  They have stated that slide, while part of LinkedIn where the training module was located, was not part of the required employee training.

[nickers]

11 minutes ago, BaconHound said:

Whether or not you believe the press release by Coca-Cola on the topic is your choice.  They have stated that slide, while part of LinkedIn where the training module was located, was not part of the required employee training.

Doesn't matter... Someone issued it... I will not support racist bullshit like that... Coca Cola can go straight to hell!

[BaconHound]

2 hours ago, nickers said:

Doesn't matter... Someone issued it... I will not support racist bullshit like that... Coca Cola can go straight to hell!

If it was a generic segment provided by LinkedIn to anyone who logged into LinkedIn and was not intended for Coca-Cola employees you’d be boycotting the wrong company but hey to each their own

[VaporTrail]

On 5/6/2021 at 12:49 PM, Canton Dawg said:

“As part of the [separation] agreement, [Gayton] will receive a $4 million sign-on payment and a monthly consulting fee of $666,666, beginning this month and ending April 2022,” the company reported, according to BusinessWire, which listed Gayton’s new role as helping to “drive certain key objectives,” without further explanation.

I think the takeaway here is that I went into the wrong profession and should have instead studied to be a diversity consultant.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

Notice the numerical amount?  666?  

[nickers]

1 hour ago, DieHardBrownsFan said:

Notice the numerical amount?  666?  

good catch..

[Axe]