As U.S. President Donald Trump continues his push to accumulate Greenland, there’s talk on social media about whether consumers should boycott products made by the cosmetics company Estée Lauder and its affiliate brands in response.
Since Jan. 15, and particularly over the weekend of Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, there have been spikes in postings on social media pushing for this recent boycott of Estée Lauder, in line with Google Trends analytics.
A few of these posts, including on Reddit, X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky feature users reacting to a report published by The Guardian on Jan. 15 that American businessman Ronald Lauder, the heir to the Estée Lauder company, was an alleged advocate of Trump’s plans during his first term to take over the Danish territory.
U.S.-based Estée Lauder is the flagship brand and parent company of Clinique, MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone London, Aveda and Tom Ford, amongst dozens of others.
While it stays to be seen if the calls for a boycott will spur results, it comes amid a broader trend of consumers being more patriotic when spending their money, including with the Buy Canadian movement in response to the U.S. trade war and rhetoric that Canada should turn into the “51st state.”
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“Consumers are operating today with an incredible deficit of trust, and when instances like this come along, it just type of reinforces that lack of trust in society and it really creates a situation where consumers feel the necessity in any way they will to fight back and to punish firms for violating that trust,” says Doug Stephens, a retail analyst at Retail Prophet.
“The degree to which the American economy relies on Canadian consumption, you can argue that our consumer power is stronger and more formidable than our military power. Donald Trump seems to have forgotten the degree to which U.S. businesses are depending on the worldwide marketplace for their success.”
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser,was quoted by The Guardian in that report as describing a 2018 encounter with Lauder, when Trump was in his first term.
“Trump called me all the way down to the Oval Office. He said a distinguished businessman had just suggested the U.S. buy Greenland,” Bolton told The Guardian, which noted Bolton said the “businessman” was Lauder.
Trump continued his demands that the U.S. be given ownership of Greenland while on the World Economic Forum on Wednesday and claimed that although Greenland is a member of NATO, the Danish territory and its allies haven’t done enough to make sure security within the Arctic region.
Estée Lauder has not made a public statement, nor has it confirmed its affiliation or alignment with Ronald Lauder’s supposed Greenland ambitions in coordination with Trump.
Global News asked the corporate for its response to the assertions made in The Guardian article and whether it’s aware of the calls online from some consumers for a boycott.
No response was received by publication time.
Stephens says the calls for a boycott is probably not easy to dismiss.
“There isn’t any responsibility being taken for what has now turn into a global incident that might affect the lives of tens of millions upon tens of millions of individuals across Greenland, Canada, Europe,” says Stephens.
“In order that indeed is why consumers are so offended and fighting back in any way that they will.”
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