Some U.S. Companies Bow to Social-Media Pressure, Sever NRA Ties
February 23 2018 - 6:51PM
Dow Jones News
By Vanessa Fuhrmans
Several companies have cut ties to the National Rifle
Association after consumers took to social media to voice outrage
against the gun lobby, days after a Florida high-school shooting
left 17 people dead.
Insurance giants Chubb Ltd. and MetLife, cybersecurity company
Symantec Corp., and Enterprise Holdings, which operates the
Enterprise, Alamo and National rental car chains, were among those
that said they would end partnerships with the NRA.
Companies are reacting partly in response to a social-media
movement to pressure or boycott entities with NRA ties, energized
by the emotional calls for gun-control action from survivors of the
shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Parkland, Fla., and students around the country. On Friday, the
hashtag "#BoycottNRA" was among the top trends on Twitter
nationally.
One of the first companies to sever ties was First National Bank
of Omaha, the largest privately owned bank in the U.S. The bank
said Thursday it wouldn't renew its contract with the NRA for a
co-branded credit card, which was promoted as the "official credit
card of the NRA." The NRA Visa card offered a $40 cash-back bonus,
enough to pay for the gun lobby's $40 annual membership fee.
"Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with
the NRA, " the bank said in a Twitter post, following which it
decided not to renew its contract.
An NRA spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to an email
seeking comment on the companies' decisions to cease such
partnerships. But in a speech at the Conservative Political Action
Conference on Thursday, NRA head Wayne LaPierre railed against "the
elites" for renewing calls on gun-ownership limits. "As usual, the
opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political
gain," Mr. LaPierre said.
In recent years, companies and their leaders have become vocal
on issues such as transgenderism, immigration policy and gay
rights. Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos last month granted $33 million
in college scholarships for illegal immigrant high-school graduates
in the U.S. In the aftermath of North Carolina's now-repealed
"bathroom bill," which required transgender people to use public
bathrooms based on their birth sex, companies including PayPal
Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Adidas AG scuttled or froze
plans to add jobs in the state.
However, the business community has been more reticent about
wading into the gun-control debate. Many companies worry about the
threat of boycotts from the NRA, which claims some 5 million
members, said Larry Hutcher, a co-founder and managing partner at
New York law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, who has advised
companies on public-relations crises.
That corporate reluctance may be changing as public support for
some gun-control measures appears to be building, Mr. Hutcher said.
A Quinnipiac University National Poll conducted earlier this week
found that two-thirds of American voters support stricter gun
control, the highest level of support measured by the survey
ever.
"Companies are looking at the same numbers as we do," Mr.
Hutcher said. "That's why they feel confident enough to terminate
these relationships."
Enterprise Holdings, which had a partnership with the NRA to
provide discounts to the association's members, said Thursday that
its three rental-car brands would end the discount program on March
26. Hertz Global Holdings and Avis Budget Group followed with
similar announcements on Friday.
Symantec said it would stop a discount program for its LifeLock
identity-theft and Norton anti-malware software for NRA members.
Chubb said it planned to stop underwriting NRA-branded insurance
policies for gun owners, though it said it had made the decision
several months ago.
The NRA, like many member associations, has had discount
partnerships with numerous companies listed on its website for
products ranging from wine to hotel reservations to FedEx shipping
expenses. Lists of many of those companies have circulated on
social media with calls to pressure them to end their relationships
with the gun lobby.
FedEx didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other companies targeted in the boycott campaign include Amazon.
Under the hashtag #StopNRAmazon, consumers on Twitter have demanded
that the company ban NRATV, the gun lobby's news outlet, from being
streamed on Amazon platforms.
Amazon representatives weren't immediately available for
comment.
"I'm someone who will buy napkins from @Amazon rather than go to
the store but if @Amazon, @Amazonhelp, and @JeffBezos don't stop
streaming the violent rhetoric of NRAtv, I may have to leave the
house again," tweeted one user.
Write to Vanessa Fuhrmans at vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 23, 2018 19:36 ET (00:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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