Among the many odd things to come out of Donald Trump’s political movement – see ear bandages, doomed boat rallies and rubbish dancing – one that could be here to stay is more prosaic: the creation of a series of rightwing marketplaces and products seeking to capitalize on anti-establishment fervor.
In recent years a number of platforms have sprung up to sell conservative-made items, from “anti-woke” dog food to pro-America lipstick, in a pushback against what they claim is “cancel culture” in the US – and what others might see as a fairly cynical attempt to cash in on rightwing Americans’ political beliefs.
Mammoth Nation and Public Square are among the most prominent in the movement, both offering an Amazon-esque service, but stocking only goods which they claim are made by companies which have “conservative values”. Mammoth Nation makes its values clear on the homepage of its website: “Join Mammoth Nation to fight against Radical Left agendas,” booms a message, with the company claiming to stock only “brands who align with your beliefs”.
“When all of this wokeness started to happen and cancel culture, and then you start to see these companies stand up and say, ‘We’re not supporting this conservative or this Christian value any more,’ and just really lines in sand were starting to get drawn,” Drew Berquist, the national spokesperson for Mammoth Nation, told The Need to Know Morning Show, a North Dakota-based rightwing radio show, in December.
“And a lot of people were trying to figure out: OK, well, who are the good companies? Who are the companies that share our values, that support our constitution, support our troops or, you know, our Christian values as a country.”
But Mammoth Nation isn’t the only one trying to capitalize on those conservative American values.
“Welcome to a new kind of marketplace. A place where you can buy everything your family needs from businesses who respect traditional American values,” reads the blurb on PublicSquare’s website. PublicSquare – think Amazon, but for the right wing – launched in 2022, and claims that it now lists products from more than 70,000 businesses.
Like Amazon, a visitor to the website can buy a range of products from homeware to clothing. Unlike Amazon, PublicSquare’s website states a series of commitments to Republican causes, including opposition to abortion and support for the constitution.
“We believe in the greatness of this Nation and will always fight to defend it,” reads a message on the homepage.
Michael Seifert told a podcast of the launch that “we need an economy where we can shop with the blessed assurance that we’re not funding companies that are standing antithetical to the values that have built this nation.”
The rise of these rightwing stores is a response to larger companies embracing initiatives perceived as leftwing, said Dr Nooshin Warren, an associate professor of marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.
“It’s been a time that all these DEI plans and all sorts of what’s called “woke”, or leftwing progressive messages, was demanded. So firms started doing that – they went on a really high speed change,” Warren said.
That change – whether it be Pepsi backhandedly trying to co-opt progressive protests, or Bud Light collaborating with Dylan Mulvaney, a trans media personality – upset a segment of rightwing consumers, creating a market for the likes of Mammoth Nation and PublicSquare.
“We’re now having these companies that only cater to the anti-woke demand of the market. It’s very easy to advertise to that market because you’re not actually [selling] the benefits of your products. You’re just saying, ‘I understand and respect your values,’” Warren said.
The marketplaces have attracted big names. Donald Trump Jr was an early investor in PublicSquare, and joined the board of PSQ Holdings Inc, the company’s owner, this month. But the model of appealing to Maga types hasn’t yet proved to be especially profitable, however: PSQ went public in 2023, but has yet to make a profit.
Other companies have sprung up to provide a range of “anti-woke” products to conservative Americans.
The Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet, launched a range of razors in 2022, after the company’s CEO deemed a rival razor brand to have “canceled” conservatives. The publication has since branched out into chocolate, soap, floor cleaner and, earlier this year, “manly green vitamin capsules”.
“Do you want to buy your men’s health products from a company that partners with drag queens and supports radical organizations that push gender procedures on children?” the Daily Wire asked readers in an article announcing the multivitamin – which at their launch cost 10 times more than Centrum-branded multivitamins.
Warren pointed to Jeremy’s Razors as an example of how easy it can be to appeal to a certain political audience.
“All they did was introduce razors with a message: ‘We are not Gillette and we are not Harry’s, [brands who] are criticizing toxic masculinity and who are being very woke. We are not woke,’” Warren said.
“It’s not that the razor is good, it’s not what the razor is doing, but it’s going to capture its market because of that demand.”
Whether these rightwing platforms and products are here to stay will depend on how big companies react. Some large corporations, including Walmart and Toyota, have already begun to rescind diversity policies in the face of rightwing criticism and Trump’s election victory, having previously adopted initiatives and language designed to be more inclusive.
“They realized: ‘Oh, we completely missed another group of the market, which now demand the opposite [to progressive policies],” Warren said.
“A lot of firms that at first provided really elaborate woke messages, they’ve retracted it because they’re trying to find that equilibrium [of], ‘Where is the sweet spot that I might be able to have two groups of people happy?’
“The problem is it’s very difficult to do that because polarity is increasing.”
Until companies find that equilibrium, it is Mammoth Nation and PublicSquare that can thrive: selling their rightwing dog food, lipstick and more to an aggrieved audience seeking out those anti-progressive values.
Source link https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/28/anti-woke-shopping-public-square
