MEDIA WATCH | KETEL ONE

Ketel One Will Be Remembered—As a Supporter of Bigotry or Champion of Tolerance

By sponsoring the Emmys you are aligning your brand with intolerance, the glorification of bigotry and the power of profit over ethics.

August 16, 2020

Ivan Manuel Menezes
CEO
Diageo
ivan.menezes@diageo.com

Dear Mr. Menezes,

Brands, like individuals, are known by the causes they stand behind. Recent events have made it clear that ignorance of bigotry is no excuse and that companies as well as individuals need to make their voices heard in support of tolerance and equality.

Here are the simple facts. Leah Remini’s now-cancelled, intolerance-fest aired by A&E specialized in promoting hatred towards Scientology, an established religion, and its members. By continually spouting hatred and denigrating one group, that show incited violence, as all such acts of bigotry do. And so it came to pass that more than 600 hundred threats or acts of violence were leveled against Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists.

The last installment of Remini’s series has been mysteriously nominated for an Emmy. By sponsoring the Emmys you are aligning your brand with intolerance, the glorification of bigotry and the power of profit over ethics.

The year 2020 will be long remembered for many traumatic or shameful things—please let’s not add religious intolerance to that list. Pull your support for any production or institution, such as the Emmy Awards, which tolerates or glorifies bigotry.

Ketel One will be known as either a supporter of bigotry or a champion of tolerance.

I urge you to make the principled choice.

David Aden