The Outspoken CEO Is a Rapidly Dying Breed
Companies are rethinking a recent willingness to publicly wade into contentious issues. And who can blame them?
An abortion rights protest in front of the US Supreme Court Building.
Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North AmericaIn the last five years, companies and their CEOs have made public statements opposing restrictions on voting rights and in support of stricter gun control. They’ve voiced their opposition to legislation that prohibits transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity and lobbied for same-sex marriage rights. They spoke out against Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries and condemned the storming of the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They tweeted #BLM and #MeToo.
Companies taking a position on social and political issues has become so much the norm in the last half decade that it’s easy to forget how unusual this kind of rhetoric once was. In 2014, when Michael Brown was killed by the police in Ferguson, Missouri, you’d be hard-pressed to find a corporate press release even mentioning his name. Six years later in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, companies from Amazon.com Inc. to General Motors Co. put out statements about racism and racial justice.