◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek June 24, 201918
joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce (NGLCC), donating to gay-friendly char-
ities,andhiringa consultingfirmthatspecialized
inmarketingtogayconsumers.Notallofthecom-
pany’s1.3million employees liked the stance. Nor
did Christian conservative groups, which called for
a boycott over the Thanksgiving weekend. Walmart
quickly caved. In 2007 it dropped the NGLCC part-
nership and released a statement saying that it
would “not make corporate contributions to support
or oppose highly controversial issues unless they
directly relate to our ability to serve our customers.”
“I was mad. I was very mad,” NGLCC co-founder
and President Justin Nelson recalls. “They have
spent years correcting that mistake.”
For the next few years Walmart shied away from
anything related to gay rights. In 2013, for exam-
ple, it declined to join Disney, Nike, and Starbucks
in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the
Defense of Marriage Act. A year later the company
seemed to have a change of heart. It opposed a 2015
bill in its home state of Arkansas that would have
allowed businesses to discriminate against gay cus-
tomers on religious grounds. It earned, then lost,
then won back a perfect score on the Human Rights
Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a highly
regarded measure of LGBTQ-friendly workplaces
that companies often use as a recruiting tool.
Earlier this year, a Walmart commercial featured
two gay men shopping together. The American
Family Association criticized the ad, saying Walton
was “probably turning over in his grave.” Walmart,
it noted, had almost always sided with Christian con-
servatives in the past. “At least with a company like
Amazon, we knew they were liberal from the out-
set,” a statement on its website said. “But this seems
more like a betrayal from a well-known friend.”
DeGeneres’scomebackstartedin 2001 whenshe
hostedtheEmmyAwards,whichhadbeenpost-
ponedtwiceaftertheSept.11 attacks. Her character-
istically upbeat and self-deprecating jokes brought
much needed relief in somber times. “They can’t
take away our creativity, our striving for excellence,
our joy,” she said. “Only network executives can do
that.” The audience gave her a standing ovation.
With that, DeGeneres was back in Hollywood’s
good graces. A second attempt at a sitcom was
short-lived, but then came a best-selling book and
voice-over work as Dory in Pixar’s animated hit
Finding Nemo. Still, her sexuality was considered
controversial. When her talk show debuted in 2003,
DeGeneres remembers a station manager saying,
“No one is going to watch a lesbian during the day.”
That prediction was quickly proved wrong—
the show won the Daytime Emmy for outstandingTHEBOTTOMLINE Walmart’spartnershipwithDeGeneresis a
testament to how mainstream businesses have embraced LGBTQ
culture and consumers.talk show four years in a row—and DeGeneres soon
became a coveted corporate sponsor. American
Express Co. hired her first, in 2004. Then came a
J.C. Penney Co. deal that prompted the threat of
a boycott from a group called One Million Moms,
which objected to the retailer’s use of a homosexual
spokeswoman. ( J.C. Penney stuck by DeGeneres.)
Today DeGeneres has a lifestyle brand, ED by Ellen,
that was born out of the work she and her wife,
actress Portia de Rossi, do of buying, renovating,
and selling Los Angeles mansions. What started
as a home decor line has expanded into clothing,
accessories, and pet products. Macy’s, Nordstrom,
PetSmart, and Bed, Bath & Beyond carry the line,
which has an annual revenue in the nine figures.
“Her power of influence makes her truly extraor-
dinary,” says Matt Fleming, director of celebrity
acquisitionattheMarketingArm.Accordingtosur-
veysbytheagency,DeGeneresis aswell-knownand
likedasPaulMcCartney.Withanaverageof2.9mil-
lion viewers per day according to Nielsen, her
daytime TV show pulls a surprisingly diverse audi-
ence. It’s 74% female, consumer insights firm MRI-
Simmons estimates, but otherwise mostly matches
the general population in age, race, and education.
“Ellen is the Oprah of our era, in the sense of
how much she dominates the category,” says Dan
Wilch, a consultant at Magid, which conducts an
annual study of daytime TV.
Walmart’s partnership with DeGeneres gives the
retailer a widely popular ally in its battle against
Amazon. It carries both ED by Ellen and EV1,
DeGeneres’s clothing brand, which comes in a
wide range of sizes and looks like a cheaper version
(everything is $30 or under) of the kind of pants-
and-jean-jacket outfits DeGeneres wears. Walmart
declined to provide sales figures for EV1 but says it’s
“pleased” with the line. “Ellen is Ellen,” says Janey
Whiteside, Walmart’s chief customer officer. “She
appeals to all ages. She’s great.”
DeGeneres’s clean-cut, friendly image is reas-
suring for brands in a marketing era when any
misstep could prompt a social media backlash.
As Jeff Greenfield, co-founder of advertising ana-
lytics firm C3 Metrics, puts it, “Ellen is safe.” She
loves animals. She dances. She often has her wife
of more than a decade on as a guest. “Even when
we talk with very conservative brands, they don’t
shy away,” says Stacy Jones, CEO of the product
placement firm Hollywood Branded. “She is a fam-
ily brand.” �Ben Steverman and Matthew Boyle,
with Tom Metcalf