Unmasking Itself: Big Alcohol Cuts DEI Programmes

Why DEI Programs Exist

In recent months – and especially following Donald Trump’s 2024 U.S. election victory – several U.S.-based alcohol giants have rolled back or eliminated their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Big Beer and Big Liquor giants have scaled back DEI programs.

The purpose of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs is to create fairer, more inclusive workplaces and societies by addressing systemic inequalities and barriers that disadvantage marginalized groups. These programs aim to ensure that people of different ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and backgrounds have equal opportunities in participating in and contributing to society in general and workplaces in particular. This can include hiring, promotions, leadership, and access to resources.

Key Goals of DEI Programs:

Diversity – Increasing representation of historically excluded groups in workplaces and society, leadership positions, and decision-making processes.
Equity – Ensuring fair treatment and access to opportunities by addressing systemic disadvantages and removing barriers to inclusion, opportunity, and success.
Inclusion – Fostering environments where individuals from all backgrounds feel valued, safe and respected, and empowered to contribute fully.

DEI initiatives address long-standing disparities in access to jobs, leadership, education, and economic opportunities. They respond to historical and ongoing discrimination. Evidence shows that more diverse organizations perform better financially, foster innovation, and improve employee satisfaction.

However, as seen with companies such as Brown-Forman and Molson Coors, DEI programs are often politically and financially vulnerable – with some corporations scaling them back when they no longer serve immediate business interests or when facing conservative backlash. This highlights that Big Alcohol is more committed to profit maximization and branding instead of genuine efforts and commitment to create better environments and societies for more people.

Big Alcohol Rolls Back Commitment to Values

Over the past year, major alcohol corporations in the U.S. have rolled back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programmes. In doing so, Big Alcohol blames shifting political dynamics and external pressure. Following Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, conservative activists intensified their campaigns against corporate DEI policies, leading companies such as Brown-Forman and Molson Coors to abandon diversity initiatives.

This shift raises serious concerns about corporate responsibility, particularly in an industry already linked to significant public health and social harms.

Brown-Forman Gives Up DEI Goals

In August 2024, Brown-Forman, the Kentucky-based owner of Jack Daniel’s, announced a major retreat from its DEI commitments. The company had previously tied 10% of executives’ short-term compensation to DEI progress but decided to eliminate this link, focusing executive incentives solely on financial performance.

It also withdrew from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, where it had previously – and controversially – earned a perfect score of 100%. This decision came shortly after conservative activist Robby Starbuck publicly pressured the company on social media, calling its policies “woke” and threatening a boycott.

According to HR Dive, internal memos revealed that Brown-Forman cited a “shifting legal and external landscape” as the reason for these changes.

Molson Coors Eliminates DEI Targets and Trainings

In September 2024, Molson Coors, the maker of popular beer brands like Coors Light and Miller Lite, followed a similar path. The company scrapped supplier diversity quotas and eliminated DEI training programs for employees. It also stopped linking executive compensation to diversity targets and pulled out of the Human Rights Campaign’s LGBTQ+ ranking, where – controversially – it had maintained a perfect score for nearly two decades.

According to Wall Street Journal, Molson Coors justified these moves as a shift to a “broader view” of inclusion, emphasising business goals over structured DEI commitments. However, industry analysts say that the decision was influenced by financial concerns and growing anti-DEI pressure from conservative activists.

Unmasking Big Alcohol’s Real Priorities

Big Alcohol strategically employs values such as freedom, responsibility, and tradition to shape public perception, influence policymakers, and attract consumers – all while prioritizing profit over genuine social good. Alcohol companies have tried to link their products to health and cancer prevention even though their products are carcinogenic. They have hijacked the Women’s Rights cause even though their products and practices fuel harmful gender norms, sexualize and dehumanize women, and fuel gender-based violence.

Yet, this rhetoric masks aggressive lobbying to undermine, derail, and destroy lives saving public health policies like raising alcohol taxes, minimum pricing, or banning alcohol advertising.

For example, research shows that alcohol companies promote “responsible drinking” campaigns, not to curb harm effectively, but to shift accountability onto individuals while opposing policies proven to reduce alcohol deaths.

Beyond this, Big Alcohol engages in manipulation through greenwashing, claiming environmental sustainability while producing massive amounts of single-use packaging, pollution, water and food insecurity, emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases, and fueling biodiversity loss. Rainbow-washing is another Big Alcohol tactic – alcohol brands release limited-edition Pride-themed bottles or sponsor LGBTQ+ events, yet when these values need defending Big Alcohol puts proffit maximization of values. For example Molson Coors have recently cut ties with LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts when faced with political backlash.

Another example is beer giant AB InBev in 2023. They marketed their product Bug Light to the LGBTIQ+ community through a collaboration with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. But when far-right, anti-rights, and transphobic groups called for a boycott, Bud Light sales crumbled and AB InBev revealed its true agenda. In an opinion column for Movendi International, human rights lawyer Nayib Chalela analyzed the way AB InBev dealt with Dylan Mulvaney case, exposing how and why alcohol companies are targeting the LGBTIQ+ community and the consequences of it.

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Similarly, pink-washing occurs when alcohol companies market products specifically to women under the guise of empowerment and feminism, despite alcohol’s disproportionate health risks for women, including increased breast cancer risk. And now, as political winds shift, many alcohol corporations are retreating from DEI programs, exposing them as branding exercises rather than true commitments to equity.

Brown-Forman and Molson Coors, for example, recently abandoned their DEI initiatives, no longer tying executive pay to diversity goals and cutting supplier diversity programs, illustrating how these efforts were always secondary to financial gain. These strategies reveal how Big Alcohol co-opts progressive values to maintain political influence, market expansion, and sustained profits – often at the expense of public health, social equity, and environmental sustainability.

The Bigger Picture: Alcohol Industry Responds to Political Pressure

These policy changes are part of a broader trend. Since Trump’s return to office in 2025, federal DEI funding has been cut, and Republican officials have warned corporations against “discrimination in hiring“.

Big Alcohol corporations feel particularly vulnerable to these political and cultural pressures because they already face declining sales and growing scrutiny over their unethical and predatory practices fueling massive alcohol harms. Alcohol deaths are rising in the U.S. and at the same time people in the US, and especially those under age 35, are increasingly aware of the risks from alcohol. A growing share of young people is endorsing the view that already low-dose alcohol use is bad for health.

Fact Check: Why Alcohol Deaths Are Rising in the U.S.

US: Growing Number of People View Alcohol as Unhealthy

Both, Brown-Forman and Molson Coors made their decisions shortly after public campaigns targeted their diversity policies. In combination with the 2023 Bud Light controversy, these cases expose how quickly Big Alcohol corporations reverse course and abandon values under external influence.

Why This Matters: Alcohol Industry and Public Health

The rollback of DEI programmes is concerning not only for workplace equity but also for public health. The alcohol industry already plays a significant role in promoting and perpetuating harm, including alcohol-related illnesses, violence, and addiction. These corporate shifts once again reveal that Big Alcohol prioritizes its own profits over human rights, democracy, and people’s health.

Instead of investing in inclusive policies that could support marginalised employees and communities affected by alcohol harm, alcohol companies are choosing to appease political movements that oppose equity-focused initiatives.

As major alcohol corporations scale back DEI commitments, a renewed focus on social justice, people’s health, and corporate accountability is more important than ever. The alcohol industry has a long history of targeting vulnerable populations, and weakening diversity programmes further foments inequalities.

Big Alcohol’s conduct and practices reveal the need for ambitious alcohol policy initiatives and corporate regulations to ensure that social justice and public health are prioritized over corporate greed.