Opinion
Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- Americans eager to take political direction from a multinational pants manufacturer were in luck this week. On Tuesday, PRWeek, a public relations trade publication, published an interview with Levi Strauss & Co. Chief Communications Officer Kelly McGinnis and Everytown for Gun Safety Public Affairs Director Stacey Radnor. The interview shed further light on the apparel giant’s partnership with billionaire gun control financier Michael Bloomberg’s front group and their well-choreographed efforts to attack Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.
Last month, the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert drew attention to Levi’s (which also owns Dockers) decision to abandon its rugged all-American image by donating more that $1 million to gun control groups Everytown and Giffords (formerly Americans for Responsible Solutions and the Legal Community Against Violence). In addition to its financial contribution, the company joined the Everytown Business Leaders for Gun Safety, whose stated goal is to use member companies’ “market footprint… employee networks, [and] public communications platforms” to advance Bloomberg’s gun control agenda.
In the PRWeek interview, McGinnis framed the San Francisco-based company’s participation in the gun debate in moralistic terms. According to America’s new self-appointed moral arbiter, Everytown’s efforts to restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans “squared with [Levi’s] core values of empathy, courage, integrity, and originality.”
McGinnis also linked the company’s attack on a cherished American freedom to the firm’s increasing emphasis on the global, rather than American, marketplace. The Levi’s flack told PRWeek, “our consumers are getting younger and more than half our business is outside the U.S., and this issue is not controversial with those groups.”
The piece also detailed the highly-choreographed nature of Levi’s latest foray into gun control. When asked by PRWeek, “What did you learn from advocacy groups?,” McGinnis explained that the gun control organizations worked with Levi’s on how best to manipulate their target audience. McGinnis stated,
Messaging, and that the sensitivity of every word matters, understanding how people read between the lines and take every word literally. Understanding how language has been used on the issue for decades and the signals related to word choices…. We had to be inclusive, understanding, and deliberate about how we channeled our support.
In praising Levi’s support for gun control, Radnor told PRWeek, “Levi’s sent a clear message that it’s not acceptable to stand idly by, there’s significant momentum on the issue of gun safety, and we can all be part of the solution.”
Despite Radnor’s enthusiasm for the purported “momentum” around gun control, Levi’s should know that the politics of gun control is a bit like their own industry. Support for gun control and the various policy prescriptions offered by civilian disarmament advocates, much like fashion trends, go in and out of style.
For instance, shortly after the high-profile shooting in Parkland, Fla., interest in gun control spiked. A Gallup poll from March found that 13 percent of Americans considered guns and gun control to be the most important problem facing America. Proving that gun control is so last season, by September the fad was over and interest had dropped to 2 percent.
Gun control advocates’ current obsession is with enacting a ban on the commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms they mislabel “assault weapons.” Berg expressed his support for a semi-auto ban in a September op-ed. According to Gallup polling, support for a ban spiked to 48 percent in 2017 following a high-profile shooting. Polling from October shows that current support for a ban is back down to 40 percent, near its all-time low. Moreover, the unmistakable trend since 1996 shows that Americans are increasingly finding such bans passé.
A total ban on civilian ownership of handguns was quite stylish last century, with support measured at a high of 60 percent in 1959. Today, publicly supporting a handgun ban is a faux pas, with support for the measure at 28 percent.
Levi’s own relative indifference to gun control from the early 2000s to 2016 coincided with a period in which the Democratic Party found the entire issue unfashionable.
Interest in gun control and its different policy interventions comes and goes, as does the ever-changing assortment of anti-gun groups supporting them. In contrast, NRA and our grassroots coalition of gun rights supporters work year in and year out towards a broad but simple goal: protecting Americans’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. These potential customers will remember Levi’s actions long after the current orgy of corporate virtue-signaling fades. Freedom is timeless, it’s always in style.
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
I have been wearing Levi’s and Dockers on and off for around 30 years, but any company that goes against everything I believe in and has these socialist, globalist and progressive ways, lets me know they are not my kind of company to do business with any longer. I really like Wrangler jeans anyway, so see ya Levi’s and Dockers ,I will add you to the long growing list of people and companies that have lost their minds to the american way of doing things !!! God bless America !!!
Fuck Levi’s and their NWO bullshit
Man, it just bust my britches how private industries are shooting themselves in the foot by stepping into political issues.
It’s like, “Hey Man, I am so rich that I don’t care if you don’t buy my stuff. I want to be trendy!” I think Levi is past it’s prime and has forgotten the workers that got them to their position. There’s a lot of pant companies out there and the market is getting ruthless. Time for Levi to ride into the sunset.
over the past 15+ years I’ve only bought vintage levi’s, when they were made better, no money goes to the Levi company. haven’t purchased Dockers in years…
I can live with Levi & Dockers.
there are so many great brands of tactical slacks and jeans available.
RC
250 Savage
Have you offered that advise or suggestion to the appropriate Levi’s executives? You can so do via email. The addressee’s will neither see nor respond, however I suspect that people there do take notice.
In words of a single syllable, To Hell With Levi’s.
Levis USE TO BE American Made, Great Quality and a favorite of GUN TOTING cowboys and laboring people. NOW they are made in some other country, crappy quality in the material and workmanship and over priced; I haven’t and will not BUY another pair of levis in my life although I use to wear them in High school.
Disgraceful that Levis has taken their position. My unfortunate tendency to expand my waist size has left me with numerous unwearable pairs of Dockers and jeans. Perhaps we could hold a ceremonial burning?
Tell the levis ceo to take their foreign made jeans and shove them up his new world order gun banning asshole!
I’m 76 years old , and i to will NEVER buy another pair of Levi’s. Let them go and sell them in China . They will put Levi’s OUT OF BUSINESS.
I stopped buying any Levi product years ago because of their stand on several issues. By their stand I realized that they were a liberal co. and I refuse to patronize them. I’ve been buying Wrangler, Lee and Carhart denims for years. I agree with others, if they get most of their income from out side of America, then by all means move to those countries.
“our consumers are getting younger and more than half our business is outside the U.S., and this issue is not controversial with those groups.”…..Then I think it’s time you MOVED to those places, I will NEVER buy another pair!
I’m with the masses of Americans and will NEVER again buy Levis or Dockers as long as they support ANY global initiatives! Nor will any of my family or our friends!
At 62 years of age and having worn Levi’s almost exclusively since I was a teenager, I will never buy another pair. I’ll buy Wranglers and 511’s. I do not spend my hard earned money with companies that use the profits to attack my freedoms and liberties. What a shame. But hey, it’s a San Francisco based company. I’m shocked it took them this long.
I’m 64 and will follow suit, ZERO tolerance for the anti American, pro socialist, NWO scum. Levi’s/Dockers, no longer worn or exist in my home. My family (fairly large number) are on board we me.
Mike, I am with you as well…..I am at 62….I cant believe all these companies, as globalists they want to control us! All the hard working men and women that have worn their products over the years, grass root people, and then do this to all of us? Levi’s….shame on you!!!!!!
Never again will I buy a pair of Levi’s or Dockers!
Dale, I’m with you. And, pardon the pun, but I’m sticking to my guns! and spreading the word to family & friends re Levi’s anti-Second stance.