North Face faces boycott for 'summer of Pride' drag queen ad campaign

2023-05-25

North Face risks Bud Light-style boycott over ‘summer of Pride’ ad featuring drag queen ‘Pattie Gonia’ telling customers to ‘come out… in nature’ – as consumers ask ‘what’s this got to do with the outdoors?’

North Face is standing by the campaign: ‘Nature is for everyone’
Conservatives were quick to boycott the brand: ‘You just lost a customer’

After Bud Light and Target, The North Face has become the latest American brand to face a boycott for promoting Pride.

The company’s Summer of Pride ad was released yesterday on its Instagram page and has already drawn ire from conservative consumers.

The commercial features drag queen ‘Pattie Gonia’ telling consumers to ‘come out… in nature with us!’ and declaring themselves a ‘real life homosexual!’

‘Hi it’s me Patti Gonia – a real life homosexual. Today I’m here with the North Face and we are here to invite you to come out… in nature with us!’ Pattie – who lists pronouns as ‘she’, ‘he’ and ‘they’, online says.

The company’s Summer of Pride ad was released yesterday on its Instagram page and has already drawn ire from conservative consumers. The commercial features drag queen ‘Pattie Gonia’ telling consumers to ‘come out… in nature with us!’

The ad tells consumers to ‘come out… in nature with us!’. It is the second year The North Face has run a Summer of Pride

The brand is standing by its campaign. ‘We’re partnering with Pattie because we believe the outdoors are for everyone’ it said

‘Nature lets you be who you are, so, for the second year in a row, The North Face is hosting Summer of Pride together with (they/she) to celebrate you and all the beautiful ways you get outside.’

The brand ran a similar ad last year where Pattie Gonia said: ‘Nature lets you be who you are… even gay!

‘Ladies and Gentlemens, you are cordially invited to the summer of Pride with my friends at North Face. We’re traveling all the gay across America.

‘Put on your boots and come out… side with us! See you there besties!’

Less explicit than Target’s ‘tuck-friendly swim bottoms’, North Face’s 2023 ‘Outside Together’ collection features rainbow-colored t-shirts and hoodies for teens and adults, and a range of blankets and camping gear.

On Instagram, North Face said it was standing behind the campaign.

‘We recognize the opportunity our brand has to shape the future of the outdoors and we want that future to be a more accepting and loving place.

Backlash: Shares in VF Corp, The North Face’s parent company, are already down

‘We’re partnering with Pattie because we believe the outdoors are for everyone,’ said a comment warning others that any harmful remarks would be removed.

Since the ad debuted yesterday, shares in VF – The North Face’s parent company – have fallen by seven percent.

Target is down by 11 percent since the start of the week.

Facing enormous backlash, the company removed some of the products causing most chaos, including items by a British transgender designer whose t-shirts feature the slogan ‘Satan respects pronouns’.

The designer, Erik Cullen, said he wasn’t angry with Target for removing his work if it meant keeping store staff and consumers safe.

Target’s crisis communications director said the decision to roll back some of the Pride items was made out of concern for staff safety amid ‘volatile’ behavior from customers.

There have not been any recorded incidents of violence.

The majority of the complaints have come from mothers on TikTok and Twitter.

‘Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work.

‘Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior,’ the Minneapolis-based retailer said yesterday.

While conservatives slammed the retailer for even launching a range of Pride products, Democrats criticized its rollback.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom – who oversees Target’s largest market – accused the company of ‘selling out LGBTQ communities’.

‘CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage. This isn’t just a couple stores in the South.

‘There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America. This doesn’t stop here.

‘You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next,’ he said yesterday.

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