Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-24)

1

Pride

Special

Report

B U S I N E S S

16

Edited by

James E. Ellis PHOTO

ILLUSTRATION

BY

BRÁULIO

AMADO;

PHOTO:

GETTY

IMAGES

Bloomberg Businessweek June 24, 2019

● Thetalkshowhosthasan

unlikelypartnerin theretailgiant

Why Walmart

Loves Ellen

EllenDeGeneresisontelevisioneveryweekday.

Sometimesshe’sontwice.Herdaytimetalkshow,

TheEllenDeGeneresShow, bringsinmoreadvertising

revenuethanDr.Phil’sandKellyRipa’scombined,

andherprime-timespecial,Ellen’sGameofGames,

getsconsistentlygoodratings.DeGeneresproduces

movies,voicesa popularPixarcharacter,hasher

owndigitalcontentnetwork,andhasearnedatleast

$500million on endorsement and TV deals, accord-

ing to a Bloomberg Billionaires Index analysis. She

has her own lifestyle brand and last year formed a

partnership with Walmart Inc. to create a clothing

and accessories line that’s awash in American flags

and rainbows and is sold in 2,300 Walmart stores.

“I’m still gay, by the way. It’s really working out for

me now,” DeGeneres said in her Netflix stand-up

special last year.

That the largest U.S. retailer finds value in align-

ing itself with a 61-year-old lesbian who has a recur-

ring segment on her talk show called “Oh, Straight

People,”is,inmanyways,a testamenttohowthor-

oughlyAmericanshaveacceptedLGBTQrights.It’s

been 50 years since the Stonewall uprising in New

York marked the start of the modern gay rights

movement. Almost two-thirds of Americans sup-

port same-sex marriage, Gallup polls show, the

opposite of what they reported when DeGeneres

first came out two decades ago. The chief executive

of America’s first trillion-dollar company, Apple Inc.,

is gay, and yet iPhones still fly off the shelves. Walt

Disney Co. this year had its first gay characters on

both its youth cable channel and in its latest Avengers

film. According to GLAAD, 8.8% of prime-time TV

characters are gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

Walmart even has a Pride shop online.