Disney, Target, Blackrock top list of ‘woke’ companies, investment survey says

A fund focused on investing in companies aligned with conservative values has released its latest survey results to determine the country’s most “woke” companies, with Disney taking the top spot.

The survey comes as corporate America continues to wrestle with pressure to use its companies to promote progressive values to customers.

“The focus of corporations should be on shareholder returns and providing goods and services to consumers, not weighing in on social and political issues which alienate consumers and investors,” said Thomas Carter, president and founder of America Conservative Values ETF (ACVF), which published the survey. “The fact that playing politics alienates investors and customers should be on the minds of CEOs and their boards of directors.” 

Entertainment giant Walt Disney, retailer Target Corp., investment company Blackrock, internet oligarchs Google and Meta (Facebook) round out the top five “wokest companies,” according to the survey. 

“ACVF asked its investors and subscribers to nominate their top three most woke liberal S&P 500 companies,” the company explains on its website, “with the prompt ‘Which Companies are the Most Antithetical to your Conservative Ideals, Beliefs, and Values?’” 

Disney came in as the top progressive company for the second year in a row, though its score dropped to 44.2% in 2023 versus 49.4% in 2022. 

Target and Blackrock shot up the list this year after controversies angered shareholders and the general public.  

Target came in as the second most woke company, scoring 38.3% in 2023 versus 10.1% in 2022 and 3.1% in 2021. 

Similarly, Blackrock tapped a 30.8% score in 2023, after posting 27.8% in 2022 and 3.1% in 2021.  

“The significant changes to the rankings of Target and Blackrock clearly reflect their recent negative headlines,” ACVF CEO and co-founder William Flaig noted. 

Target saw its first decline in quarterly sales last year after the company went all-in for LGTB ideology, marketing transgender clothing to kids in-store.  

Target share prices dropped from nearly $167 in February 2023 to under $107 by November.  

Customers were so outraged by Target’s marketing in a supposedly family-friendly section of their stores that Target CEO Brian Cornell belatedly pulled the clothing lines, after recognizing the backlash had reached a flash point. 

“I’ve seen natural disasters, the impact of COVID, the violence that took place after George Floyd’s murder,” he said. “But I will tell you what I saw back in May is the first time since I’ve been in this job where I had store team members saying, ‘It’s not safe to come to work.’” 

Blackrock was tagged by conservatives for its advocacy of so-called “socially responsible” investing, promoting climate change ideology and race-based diversity, equity and inclusion policies. 

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink said the company lost nearly $4 billion in assets, according to Reuters. 

Shareholder activist Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, says corporations have not yet learned the lesson that business and politics don’t mix. 

“Too many companies still have not abandoned ‘woke’ because they still believe in it,” Chesser told The Lion. “The lessons of Bud Light, Target and Disney have not resonated enough and have not hit home for many of them — yet.” 

Chesser said that some companies, such as Blackrock, have “muted” their progressive rhetoric, but that hasn’t changed their commitment to carrying the water for leftist ideologues.   

“Whatever accountability there is being applied and that is effective, as of right now, is through consumer responses as in the case with Bud Light, whose latest setback came during the Super Bowl,” said Chesser. 

After an ill-advised partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light lost its ranking as the top-selling beer in America. And marketing efforts during the Super Bowl were ineffective for Bud Light in reclaiming the top spot. 

ACVF’s Carter agreed with Chesser that ‘woke’ companies shouldn’t be rewarded with investor dollars because they are devoted to ideology, not shareholder value. 

“It’s clear Disney’s adoption of left-wing ideology led by its war on parental rights continues to harm the company’s brand among politically conservative investors,” said Carter. 

And Chesser doesn’t expect Disney to change under its current leadership. 

“Disney is still run by Bob Iger, one of the most woke ideologues in corporate America, who is loath to anger the vast majority of creative employees under the Disney shingle in Southern California, where he resides,” said Chesser.  

Most Woke liberal companies in America – ACVF’s 2023 Survey Results 

1   – Walt Disney (DIS) 

2   – Target Corp (TGT) 

3   – Blackrock Inc (BLK) 

4   – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL & GOOG) 

5   – Meta Platforms Inc (META) 

6   – Starbucks Corp (SBUX) 

7   – Bank Of America Corp (BAC) 

8   – Nike Inc (NKE) 

9   – CocaCola (KO) 

10 – Apple Inc   (AAPL) 

11 – Pfizer Inc   (PFE) 

12 – Amazon Com Inc   (AMZN) 

13 – Microsoft Corp   (MSFT) 

14 – Walmart Inc   (WMT) 

15 – Netflix Inc   (NFLX)