Southwest Airlines has joined several brands, including Bud Light, Target, and PetSmart, being targeted for “wokeness.”
The Dallas-Texas-based airline was recently denied its request to take over the “Southwoke.com” website that takes aim at the company’s LGBT policies and hiring guidelines.
The Southwoke website features photoshopped images of Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan and Board of Directors members David Biegler, Nancy Loefler, Gary Kelly, and Veronica Biggins dressed in drag attire and wearing wild-looking hairstyles.
Southwest filed a complaint on April 4 against the website and requested that the Southwoke domain be turned over to Southwest Airlines.
“We filed a complaint against the internet domain, but the website registrant hasn’t responded or identified themself,” Southwest Airlines spokesperson Chris Mainz told The Epoch Times in an email. “Ultimately, an arbitrator found the site a parody that isn’t meant to be taken seriously.”
Southwest issued three complaints against the Southwoke website:
- The domain name is “identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark,” to which Southwest Airlines has rights.
- The domain owner “has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name.”
- “The domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.”
A Forum Alternative Dispute Resolution arbitrator denied Southwest’s requests citing it failed to meet the criteria laid out by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
“Having not established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy, the Panel concludes that relief shall be denied,” the panelist wrote in his findings.
No one has come forward claiming responsibility for “Southwoke.com.” The domain is registered at Tucows Domains; however, information about the owner of Southwoke has been “redacted for privacy.” The information shows that the website was created on March 6, 2023.
The airline said it disagrees with the decision and is looking into other legal options against the website.
“We do not agree,” Mainz continued. “The expressions on this site do not align with what we stand for as a company, and the content includes hurtful images and language, all represented as our brand. We continue to explore legal remedies and are working to minimize awareness of the sensational and hurtful content.”
The Southwoke website features blog posts with titles such as “Southwoke Hires fabulous Sam Brinton as Our New Baggage Czar” and “Southwest Airlines Celebrates Canceled Flights as a Win for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” among others.
There’s a page titled “A Message From Our CEO.”
“Here at Southwoke, we’re fully committed to DEI, ESG, Allyship, #MeToo, and every other trendy woke acronym or hashtag you can think of. In fact, we’re so committed that we want to import those same values from other woke meccas like San Francisco and Portland to right here, deep in the heart of Texas—the stolen lands of the Caddo, Wichita, and Comanche people,” the message from “Bob Jordan” reads, whose listed pronouns are “He/Him/Two Spirit.”
“We recognize that implementing these changes won’t be easy. From time to time, it may leave our passengers stranded and vomiting for hours. It may lead to multiple flight cancellations, reroutings, and lost bags,” the message continued with links to news stories related to the incidents mentioned. “And occasionally, it may even lead to the cancellation of thousands of flights over the holidays, leaving our customers stranded without luggage for days on end.”
In late March, a “Southwoke” billboard appeared along Interstate 35 near Fort Worth.
“Bringing San Francisco’s baggage to Texas non-stop,” the billboard states. The same Southwest officials shown on the home page of the fake website are displayed on the billboard.
Another billboard popped up earlier this month along the same highway south of Fort Worth.
The second billboard’s artwork shows a man wearing makeup, a feather boa, and purple hair.
The slogan reads, “Either Way We’ll Drag You on Board” in large purple letters except for the word Drag, which is hot pink, matching the feather boa on the man. The text beneath the slogan is the website name, Southwoke.com, along with a heart logo in pride colors.
“Keep up the woke, we’ll keep up the billboards,” declares the message across the bottom of the billboard.
Both billboards feature a plane with Southwoke written across the main body, along with a rainbow-striped tail fin.
Target has faced declining sales and stock shares since it launched its Pride collection for children last month. Parents and anti-woke advocates blasted the company calling consumers to boycott the massive retailer.
On May 24, the company announced it would be removing some of the items, citing threats against employees despite its decade-long practice of “offering an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month.”
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” the press release said. “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.
“Our focus is now on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” the company said.
Bud Light has not been able to shake its marketing failure involving transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The brand owned by Anheuser Busch produced a Bud Light beer can featuring Mulvaney’s face, which sent the company on a downward spiral it has yet to recover from.
For two weeks in May, the company tried to lure beer drinkers back to the brand by essentially offering consumers a free 15-pack of Bud Light in the form of a $15 rebate via a digital prepaid credit card.
PetSmart was recently added to the anti-woke boycott list after the company introduced its LGBT-themed pet products collection dubbed “You Are Loved.” The line includes rainbow-colored pet clothes, toys, dog bandanas, cat harnesses, aquarium items, and reptile capes with the words “pride vibes.”
Fast-food company Chick-fil-A has also come under fire after the company was discovered to have a vice president of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Naveen Athrapully, Jack Phillips, and Bill Pan contributed to this report.