“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart accused a variety of corporations of exploiting the “struggle of gay people” during Pride Month in his Monday monologue.
As he paid tribute to “Wheel of Fortune” icon Pat Sajak, Stewart then tore into some companies, mocking commercials from Burger King, Skittles, Oreo, Target and others.
“Pride Month is, of course, that time of year when corporations get together and financially exploit the decades-long struggle of gay people for acceptance and equality,” Stewart said as he segwayed into the main portion of the episode. The segment spotlighted Burger King’s “Pride Whopper” made with “two equal buns,” Skittles’ colorless “Pride Pack,” and an Oreo commercial showing a family “overcoming a father’s deep conservative values.”
Stewart then switched to Target which faced backlash last year over selling Pride Month merchandise. This year, they are cutting back on the merchandise.
“That’s the burden corporations must bear,” Stewart said. “They care almost too much about the human condition, often finding themselves in the crosshairs of ideologues and fundamentalists. But they stand by their values. Sometimes for a couple of months!”
“This is only following in a long line of hollow corporate pandering meant to convince you that not only are corporations people, they’re good people,” he later added. “Decent people who care about the systemic ills of this great nation.”
The late-night host stated similar thing is developing with diversity campaigns, with companies touting their initiatives publicly, but then scaling back some of those programs.
“Stop!” he said. “We don’t need any of this.”
“Why are we allowing ourselves to get worked up over whether giant multinational corporations are pro-gay or have traditional American values,” Stewart said. “Because corporations have but one value: shareholder value. That’s all they have.”