(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The Dallas Cowboys were criticized on social media over the holiday weekend after announcing a marketing agreement with the Black Rifle Coffee Company.
The Cowboys suffered from, if nothing else, incredibly poor optics by unveiling the new partnership with the gun-themed coffee company the day after seven people died in a shooting in Chicago on July 4, according to Politico.
Because of that, the team received a lot of criticism from the twitterverse, racking up more than 200 comments under the post in a few hours.
“Maybe read the room a bit, guys,” one person said.
Another Twitter user said that he’s not going to support the team anymore.
“The Dallas Cowboys just lost one of their biggest fans. Integrity matters.”
The tweet provided a link to a contest where a person can win two tickets to a Cowboys game and a one-year subscription to the coffee company.
A spokesman for Black Rifle Coffee focused on how the company was proud to work with the Cowboys and highlighted their patriotism on Independence Day.
“[The company] is proud to partner with the Dallas Cowboys, who are strongly committed to our mission of supporting veterans, first responders and America’s men and women in uniform,” a spokesman said.
“The long-planned announcement was timed to coincide with the Independence Day holiday — America’s Team. America’s Coffee. America’s Birthday.”
T. Bettina Cornwell, academic director of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, noted that for people who are against guns, it will never be the right time to partner with a company like Black Rifle.
“For those opposed to gun violence, there is no good timing,” Cornwell said.
“The business question is, ‘Have the Cowboys made a misstep in terms of their relationship with their more moderate fans?’”
It is not a surprise that the Cowboys partnered with BRCC. Jerry Jones, the owner of the team, has always supported the military and opposed kneeling during the national anthem to protest “racism” in America.
It is a surprise, however, that people think BRCC is an ultra-conservative company.
Even though it was founded by Evan Hafer, a U.S. Army veteran, who supports fellow veterans, a New York Times piece about Black Rifle revealed a more complex political bent underpinning the company.
“It’s such a repugnant group of people… the worst of American society… The racism f***ing really pisses me off,” Hafer said of what he saw surrounding the J6 protests.
“I hate racist, Proud Boy-ish people… I’ll pay them to leave my customer base,” he told the Times. “I would gladly chop all of those people out of my fucking customer database and pay them to get the f*** out.”
