Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made Walt Disney his proxy for every company that embraces diversity and pushes what he calls "woke" values. That's a political marketing decision that seems pretty flawed because the presidential candidate could have made Starbucks, Target, or lots of other companies his target rather than going after the company that drives billions of dollars in tourism to his state.
Starbucks (SBUX) and Target (TGT), however, while they clearly support values DeSantis does not agree with, did not specifically call out the governor. Former Walt Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Chapek did exactly that, publicly taking a stand against DeSantis' so-called "don't say gay" legislation.
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Chapek likely never wanted to do that, but many of his employees at Florida's Disney World expressed anger that that company did not stand up for LGBTQ+ rights, so he took a public stand condemning the legislation. Current CEO Bob Iger has not had to comment on specific issues, but he has made it clear that Disney could choose to spend some of the $17 billion earmarked for Florida development in other places.
DeSantis picked Disney because the company called him out, but also because it seemed like an easy target. He wanted to make the company an example by showing that if any business takes a stand on gay rights, diversity, or inclusion issues, Florida's governor would make them pay.
He calls it a "war on woke," but it's really a branding campaign where the governor wants to build his brand by contrasting himself with high-profile targets that support values the governor disagrees with.
The goal, of course, is to make DeSantis more popular at the expense of Disney's reputation. A new poll, however, makes it clear that those efforts have backfired.
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DeSantis Less Popular, Disney Holds Steady
When someone runs for president, they need to build a national image and find an audience that supports their platform. DeSantis tried to use Disney to vault himself to the national stage, but a new June 15 poll from Navigator shows that those efforts have not worked.
"Over the last year, views of Disney have remained steady, as nearly two in three Americans (63%) express favorable views. By contrast, views of DeSantis (32% favorable) have declined substantially since November: he is now 16 points underwater with Americans overall (down from net +2 favorable in November) and has seen double-digit declines in favorability across party lines," the website reported.
Those changes are not just Democrats and Independents losing faith in the Florida Governor, his standing has also fallen by an even greater amount with Republicans.
"Views of DeSantis have declined net 17 points among Democrats, 18 points among independents, and 19 points among Republicans," the poll showed.
Americans Don't Want to Be More Like Florida
Navigator describes itself as "a project designed to better understand the American public’s views on issues of the day and help advocates, elected officials, and other interested parties understand the language, imagery, and messaging needed to make and win key policy arguments." It uses Global Strategy Group, an independent company, to conduct its polls.
This poll also found that Americans have cooled to DeSantis' idea of making America more like Florida.
"Since early April, Americans across party lines have cooled to the idea, driven by large declines among independents (net -31 appealing now, compared to net -5 in April) and Republicans (net +28 now, down from net +52)," the company shared.
The poll was conducted online June 2-5.
"Respondents were verified against a voter file and special care was taken to ensure the demographic composition of our sample matched that of the national registered voter population across a variety of demographic variables," according to Navigator's website.
