Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker Robby Starbuck explained how his strategy to expose brands that push DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in the workplace and fund controversial causes is successful due to its long lasting, lingering impact that targeted companies simply cannot afford to ignore.
Since June, Starbuck has exposed four companies – Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, and now Jack Daniels – for their DEI policies and funding of controversial causes which do not align with the values of their consumer bases.
Starbuck’s investigative work into the policies of Tractor Supply, John Deere, and Harley Davidson have led the companies to publicly reverse course amid backlash from consumers.
Once Starbuck’s campaign into Harley Davidson was released, two more motorcycle companies – Polaris and Indian Motorcycle – also followed suit and trashed its DEI initiatives before being publicly exposed.
In addition, before Starbuck’s full campaign of Jack Daniels was released, the whiskey company announced it would be ending its participation in an “Equality Index social credit system,” making bonuses/goals for employees solely based on business performance, ending “quantitative workforce and supplier diversity ambitions,” and cutting woke trainings.
During Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Starbuck explained the strategy behind his successful campaign which has since led to all of the companies he’s targeted to reverse course and change their policies.
“When I did this, I looked at the history of boycotts for a very long time – not just in America, but across the world. I looked at what’s been successful, what hasn’t been, what are the pressure points that work, what doesn’t work, and identified that there was one way of doing this that had not been done yet and had a thesis that it would work. You mobilize force multiplication over a long period of time, because the number one PR reaction to a bad story or negative press is to let it blow over,” Starbuck explained.
Starbuck added that his campaign has been “impossible” for companies to ignore as “millions” of consumers feel compelled by his work to get involved by boycotting the companies.
“This isn’t just me shattering corporate DEI policies. This is millions of people getting involved, and I think that’s the magic of it…It’s like a war. Once you start winning every battle against armies that everybody says you couldn’t possibly win against, it emboldens your own army. It emboldens the people…The more you win, the more people join the cause,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck said his campaign is built in a way that is “very approachable” to everyday consumers while also being very in depth in terms of vetting the companies via research and tips sent in by credible whistleblowers.
“I think the more you overproduce it, the more it feels like this is something extremely formal and not just the fact that we’re consumers too and we just want things to go back to normal. So we try to do it in a way that’s very approachable and everybody can sink their teeth into it and be like, ‘Oh, I relate to that. I don’t want my money spent on a pride event either’,” Starbuck said.
“We have over a thousand whistleblowers at this point, well over a thousand,” Starbuck added.
In regards to the overall success of his campaign, Starbuck said he believes that everyday consumers are supporting his efforts because many people, including Democrats, do not want “politics or social issues shoved down their throat” in the workplace.
“We’re working hard to just inject sanity back into the conversation. I think a big reason why it’s been so successful is because I’m not asking these companies to adopt my politics, and I think that if I was, we probably wouldn’t be having the success that we’re having. Instead, I’m saying, ‘Look, let’s just have work be work again.’ We have plenty of places in this country to fight about political issues and divisive social issues and things along those lines, but I think people just want to go to work, be able to do their job and not have politics or social issues shoved down their throat,” Starbuck said.
When it comes to ensuring that companies stick to promises made after being exposed and boycotted by their consumers, Starbuck said he maintains contact with whistleblowers from inside the companies and if any promise is not kept, he’ll know about it.
“For us, the advantage of the fact that we make our decisions based on having whistleblowers in companies is that we have eyes inside every one of these companies. So if Jack Daniels makes this statement about cutting DEI, cutting all these woke policies and a month from now, they sponsor a drag show, I’m going to know about it, and I’m going to make it a thousand percent worse than the initial sort of story,” Starbuck explained.
“I think that’s how we ensure that there is really accountability on the back end of this, that these companies really do change,” Starbuck added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Robby Starbuck” by Starbuck Studios.
