Years ago, I remember being taught in one of my business classes in college about an anecdote about McDonald’s french fries. McDonald’s used to cook their fries in oil and beef tallow. That’s what made them so good. A small group of very loud people, mostly vegans, PETA, and two angry Hindus, made a stink over this, and they switched to “beef flavor.” The fries didn’t taste as good. The vegans and Hindus in the US didn’t start eating at McDonald’s but McDonald’s fry fans stopped. It was overall, a disaster for McDonald’s.
The lesson: a handful of very loud annoying people shouldn’t shift you from successful business practices. It’s not worth throwing away huge sums of money to attract a few, really obnoxious potential customers.
This is why big business shouldn’t get into politics.
Delta dropped the NRA discount. Personally, I don’t care. I don’t fly for fun and my company pays for the lowest cost flight, so I don’t get to pick my carrier.
What this did was piss off the GA state GOP.
Delta used to have a tax exemption on state fuel tax in GA. That meant that Delta didn’t have t pay fuel tax on all the refueling it did through its Atlanta hub. Saving the company some $40 Million per year.
The tax lapsed and Delta has been trying to get it back.
Just days ago it would have been a cake walk. I’m not a fan of cronyism in business, but Delta was planing expansions out of Atalanta, including going all the way to China. So a cut in taxes was supposed to result in job growth for GA, and I’m all for job creation.
Well, Delta caved to the anti NRA pressure and now the GA GOP has put the Kibosh on the fuel tax cut.
Delta wanted to play politics and now they got dunked on.
I’m not an accountant for Delta but I’d assume that the $40 Million in fuel taxes is worth a lot more to the company than the handful of militant anti gun owners who would boycott Delta.
People talk a big game about boycotts on Twitter, but most of those people, six months for now, will pull the trigger on the cheapest or most convenient flight they can find and forget all about the boycott. If Delta saw a drop in sales it cold tie to the NRA, then, next fiscal quarter or year they could announce dumping the NRA as a justified business decision. Right now, they just blew a $40 Million dollar hole in their profits.
This is why you don’t bow to obnoxious activists. When the news cycle shifts to the next big topic, all you’ve really done is fucked yourself.
I love your last paragraph. Well done, sir!
It seems like a lot of CEOs who should know better believe that CNN represents all citizens. I would bet that their viewership is in the low single-digit millions. There are over 300 million adult or near-adult people in the country and most of them, by far, don’t watch CNN. I certainly don’t.
Any idiot should, by now, have realized that the “mainstream” media does not represent the majority of citizens.
So I’m guessing that these CEOs who think that severing ties with the NRA will in some way hurt our organization, or garner more business for them, are not as smart as the average moron.
— signed, a benefactor life member of the NRA, member since 1982.
We Will Not Give Up The Fight!
CNN viewership is below that of the hallmark channel and does not even make the top 10 in cable channel viewership.
“This is why you don’t bow to obnoxious activists. When the news cycle shifts to the next big topic, all you’ve really done is fucked yourself.”
Preach! 😀
[…] So I could not help and smile when J. Kb. wrote: […]
So many things wrong with this situation.
First of all, the bullying, and cowtowing to the bullies. It is like the mother of the spoiled brat, who gives in rather than have their precious little snowflake be upset…
Then there is the idiocy of it is. Anyone with half a functioning brain cell knows that the NRA has NOTHING to do with this (or any other) mass shooting. What is the closest affiliation they have had with a mass shooter? One of them took a class once?
Let’s add another point. How many NRA members joined because they could get a discount on airfare or rental cars? Yeah, I am thinking zero as well. Net result, nothing. No lost members.
On the other hand, how many clients will Delta and United lose? I am a frequent flyer on Delta, well past the halfway point toward my million miler status. Will I stop flying Delta? No, but there are other choices. Do I want to spend my money with a company with zero spine, and the IQ of a houseplant?
The impact to these company’s bottom line from pissing off 5+million potential clients will far outweigh the benefit they gain from this virtue signaling.
“the NRA has NOTHING to do with this (or any other) mass shooting.”
Not quite true, as I understand it.
The NRA helped fund kevlar panels for the school’s firearms-related activities – ROTC and such – and the students involved in those activities, tried to use the panels to help shield other students.
If that’s the case, the NRA was involved, all right … as the most positive influence in the whole sad, sloppy, sorry mess.
[…] Remember back in February when Delta dropped the NRA discount and the Georgia GOP decided to repay Delta for getting political by sticking them with $40 Million in taxes? […]