GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is wading into the controversy surrounding Bud Light and Nike's recent partnerships with a trans activist, citing it as an example of large corporations' consistent push to engage in "the worst kind of woke capitalism," even if it means pushing away established customers.
"This, to me, is a case of a company that's clearly not following its financial self-interest," Ramaswamy said. "Sometimes you could make an argument that a company does something totally woke because that's what its customer base wants to see. Oftentimes, that's even debatable. In the case of Bud Light, that's just wrong."
Anheuser-Busch, the company behind Bud Light, recently sent specialized cans of the popular beer to trans activist and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, featuring the influencer's face. The cans included printed text that celebrated her first "365 Days of Girlhood."
Less than a week later, Mulvaney received a paid partnership with Nike and took to social media to model the company's leggings and sports bras in a series of videos.