Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Well about two weeks ago. Back on November TEWOD, Levi
Speaker 2: Strauss came out with earnings and they lowered their revenue
Speaker 2: growth outlook for the full year. The results showed that
Speaker 2: Levi Strauss is making progress toward its goal of becoming
Speaker 2: more reliant on its own stores and on e commerce,
Speaker 2: but weakness in other areas is also holding the company back.
Speaker 2: Shares fell as much as close to twelve percent that day.
Speaker 2: They ended up closing down seven point seven percent. On
Speaker 2: the day after those numbers came out, we got back
Speaker 2: with us. Harmeat Singh, chief financial officer over at Levi
Speaker 2: Strauss and Company. He joins us here in the Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Interactive Brokers Studio. Good to see you.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Yeah, thanks for having me, Tim and Molly.
Speaker 2: Hey, if you're watching us on YouTube or Bloomberg Originals,
Speaker 2: you can see that you are just head to toe
Speaker 2: in denim rw H two T. I don't know which
Speaker 2: Levi's jeans you're wearing.
Speaker 3: And these are new Losive fits.
Speaker 2: The five six eights Okay, he's got the five six
Speaker 2: eights on. You got the denim shirt, which looks great.
Speaker 3: With the Western way the Western okay, yeah, beyond you
Speaker 3: know we've signed up Beyonce. Yeah, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 3: we'll talk about that, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: And you need a jacket, so you've got a denim
Speaker 2: jacket on as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then what.
Speaker 4: About the outerword jacket when you go outside.
Speaker 3: It's cold here, I know, but this jacket does protect me.
Speaker 3: The good news is we have a line of out
Speaker 3: of way just hitting our stoves for the ready.
Speaker 2: My question, do you always dress like this every day?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean that's the beauty of working at Lew's. You
Speaker 3: can wear the brands, you can wear it to work,
Speaker 3: you can wear two interviews like this, you can wear
Speaker 3: it to a formally went and people give you the latitude.
Speaker 2: Well it's good right now because no question, Denhim is
Speaker 2: having a moment, So you don't really look out of
Speaker 2: place when you're wearing a lot of Denhim. But I'm
Speaker 2: wondering how long that lasts, like because there have been
Speaker 2: moments like this when it comes to the history of
Speaker 2: the company, when it comes to fashion over the last
Speaker 2: few decades where Denham has gone in and out. How
Speaker 2: do you think about that? As CFO?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, So we are the market leader and the
Speaker 3: as the market leader, market leader, and men's market leaders
Speaker 3: now and women's as the market leader. You know, our
Speaker 3: responsibility is to lead trends and drive people towards our products.
Speaker 3: You know, we're focused on what we call denim lifestyle,
Speaker 3: which is more head to toe across both men's and women's.
Speaker 3: You're wrapping it, yeah, and I'm rapping it. You can see,
Speaker 3: you know, the other folks, But denim is having a moment,
Speaker 3: as you call it. The last cycle started with the
Speaker 3: skinny way back into in the late late two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven, two thousand and eight. That lasted for about
Speaker 3: eight nine years. We were the first to introduce the
Speaker 3: loser fit just before COVID, and it took off post COVID.
Speaker 3: And you know, the other thing that we really focused
Speaker 3: on is because the words become a lot more casual
Speaker 3: after COVID. You see it in a hybrid work culture,
Speaker 3: you see it in other social occasions. And so we
Speaker 3: are making a stronger pivot to the non denim piece
Speaker 3: of our apparel for men we've got something called performance deech.
Speaker 3: It's like the ABC Lulu pant, and that's really gaining traction.
Speaker 3: And so as we think about, you know, growing the business,
Speaker 3: it's about owning a larger share of the closet without
Speaker 3: you know, taking the eye off the ball on what
Speaker 3: we're really known for, which is denim. And so it's
Speaker 3: all about denim lifestyle.
Speaker 4: I would think a lot of it right now too,
Speaker 4: is about wide legged dnimal. I mean that is just
Speaker 4: like we had a great story about this recently about
Speaker 4: you know, women in particular who are buying you know,
Speaker 4: roughly one hundred dollars wide legged jeans and then the
Speaker 4: seven hundred dollars wardrobe to go along with it. Jim's
Speaker 4: eyes just bulg. So yeah, all the rest of maybe
Speaker 4: like the crops, weaters and jackets, because if you've got
Speaker 4: like a waist that's coming up kind of high, then
Speaker 4: you want the shirt to kind of hit roughly around there.
Speaker 4: I'm learning this. I have a style of She's tell
Speaker 4: me all about it. So yeah, I mean, obviously, Hermie,
Speaker 4: you could tell us more about this.
Speaker 3: It's actually you hit the nail on the head. I
Speaker 3: was going to talk to you about it. But it's
Speaker 3: not only about bottoms, and as the as the fits
Speaker 3: for the bottom change, you know, so do the tops,
Speaker 3: and so as we think about denim lifestyle, we're also
Speaker 3: focused on growing our tops business, which was up nicely
Speaker 3: in quarter three. You know, it's up eight percent. Sorry
Speaker 3: I think eight percent. But overall, what you saw in
Speaker 3: quarter three largely was that Levi's as a brand grew
Speaker 3: five percent, and that's the strongest growth we have had
Speaker 3: in Levi's over two years. Sequentially, it's getting better and
Speaker 3: that's why, as we talked about quarter four, while we
Speaker 3: took our overall guidance for the year down, you know,
Speaker 3: our belief is sequentially quarter fours is you know, slightly
Speaker 3: better than quarter three.
Speaker 2: Well, if if Dunham is having this moment, then why
Speaker 2: don't you think investors are buying into this? Levi Strauss
Speaker 2: shares up about twelve percent so far this year, underperforming
Speaker 2: the S and P five hundred. Why aren't investors buying
Speaker 2: into this?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think you know what we've done this year
Speaker 3: is we've narrowed focus into Levi's and beyond yoga. You know,
Speaker 3: we announced the exit of Dockers. The Dockers was underperforming.
Speaker 3: We had a smaller footwear business really based out of Europe.
Speaker 3: We are exiting that, and we were present in Target
Speaker 3: through our Denisen brand. We introduced Levi's Red Tab in
Speaker 3: Target that you know had a good run. So you know,
Speaker 3: we thought it was better to focus on Levi's than
Speaker 3: Red Tab. And so as you think about it, I
Speaker 3: think the fact that we are transforming in the year
Speaker 3: while are we trying to perform and performing really well
Speaker 3: on Levi's, is I think why people are just saying, Okay,
Speaker 3: let the transformation you know, get complete and we'll buy in.
Speaker 3: But overall, you know, Levi's as a stock over the
Speaker 3: last twelve months has had a decent run. We're long
Speaker 3: on the stock, We're long on you know, trends of
Speaker 3: the business. Our longer term goal is to take the
Speaker 3: six billion dollar business and make it more like a
Speaker 3: ten dollar ten billion dollar business, improving our operating margins
Speaker 3: by a couple of percentage points. The other thing that
Speaker 3: is happening in the business is this transformation into more
Speaker 3: of a d d C first business. It doesn't mean
Speaker 3: DDC only, it does mean, you know, we lead with DDC,
Speaker 3: which is our stores, our e commerce and wholesale compliments
Speaker 3: are are direct to consumer business, and that transformation is
Speaker 3: taking ship today. DDC is about half our business when
Speaker 3: I joined, is about a fifth of our business.
Speaker 2: We're going to get more on directing consumer in just
Speaker 2: a minute. But you mentioned doctors, so I wanted to
Speaker 2: talk to you a little bit about the options for doctors.
Speaker 2: You did announce that you're looking to sell the business
Speaker 2: when I when I heard that, I think to myself,
Speaker 2: this is like a perfect fit for authentic brands group.
Speaker 2: Jamie Stalter is like, uh, you know, Jamie Salter's group.
Speaker 2: He's got Airwalk, air Apostle, Billibong, DC, Greg Norman, Eddie Bauer,
Speaker 2: Champion Fry. I mean, I'm only down to F at
Speaker 2: that point in the alphabet. He's got everything over there
Speaker 2: down to Volcom. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I won't comment about perspective bias. I would say that
Speaker 3: the reason we announced the exit of Docers we created Docers, Okay,
Speaker 3: so it's a homegrown brand that had a wonderful run
Speaker 3: for a long period of time. We launched Docers just
Speaker 3: to uh, you know, take advantage of the casual Friday
Speaker 3: that was said in the in the mid to late eighties.
Speaker 3: The what has happened is it's in a low growth category.
Speaker 3: And I'm a you know, we're a fun believer that
Speaker 3: what this does is unlocked dockers with somebody who can
Speaker 3: take it to the next level while we concentrated on
Speaker 3: taking Levis to the next level. I've been part of
Speaker 3: spin spinoffs and I've seen that happen. To your question
Speaker 3: about you know, perspective buiers, we announced it so that
Speaker 3: we would probably hear from perspective bias is early days.
Speaker 3: Our intent is to sell it, uh, and intend to
Speaker 3: sell it to bias that can not only take the
Speaker 3: brand to the next level, protect as many employees of
Speaker 3: doctors as they can and UH, and we'll see where
Speaker 3: this goes. Uh. Phones are ringing, which is the good news.
Speaker 3: These transactions take time, and you know, when we have
Speaker 3: something to talk about us who's the perspective acquired, we'll
Speaker 3: definitely you know, talk about that.
Speaker 4: You just call us, Yeah, just pass their phone calls
Speaker 4: maybe onto us. When those phones are ringing. I mean,
Speaker 4: what kind of timeline do you think is reasonable to
Speaker 4: look at something like that to really complete that kind
Speaker 4: of a space.
Speaker 3: It's a strong brand and in our view is something
Speaker 3: like this, you know, can take six to nine months.
Speaker 3: You know, what we're really interested is is ensure that
Speaker 3: it's a right buyer who does the right thing for
Speaker 3: the brand. Uh. And so you know we're going to
Speaker 3: do it in a fast way, but we'll do it
Speaker 3: the right way.
Speaker 4: Right. Well, I mean, I think this is the time
Speaker 4: where we pivot to Beyonce. I mean, tell us more
Speaker 4: about this partnership. I think a lot of people want
Speaker 4: to know about it when what exactly like her role
Speaker 4: is with the brand here, Like, is Beyonce like straight
Speaker 4: up designing Levi's clothes?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 4: Like, can I get a Beyonce designed pair of Levi's geens?
Speaker 3: No, it's it's not about a product collaboration. It's about
Speaker 3: a partnership with someone. You know, she's an icon. She's
Speaker 3: been in the center of culture. You know. You know
Speaker 3: she her values and our values resonate. You know, she's
Speaker 3: been a supporter of the brand for years, for decades.
Speaker 3: And when she named a song after boy Carter co
Speaker 3: Carter and the song Levi's that was organic she you know,
Speaker 3: in nineteen I remember she she was at Coachella and
Speaker 3: was wearing US shots again a very organic, you know,
Speaker 3: uh thing that she did, and you know, product sales
Speaker 3: went up on the shots. So you know, we kind
Speaker 3: of sat back and said, you know, it's a it's
Speaker 3: a it's been a great partnership. Could we take it
Speaker 3: to the next level and having somebody like her support
Speaker 3: our brand, support the iconic apparel that we have, the
Speaker 3: five or ones for example, the T shirts. Actually actually,
Speaker 3: you know, I think we think it's a win win
Speaker 3: for both Beyonce as well as us. Plus, you know,
Speaker 3: we're leaning heavily into driving our women's business about a
Speaker 3: third of our business. We see no reason why it
Speaker 3: shouldn't be half our business, right and I think you know,
Speaker 3: she has uh, you know, many fans around the world,
Speaker 3: and I think the combination of the two brands would
Speaker 3: make a difference.
Speaker 2: Just well fifty seconds and then we're going to come
Speaker 2: back for more with you. Have you already noticed a
Speaker 2: higher sales figure or more loyalty on the back of
Speaker 2: this campaign.
Speaker 3: You know, it's early days with a campaign. This is
Speaker 3: the it's a twelve month partnership. We just launched the
Speaker 3: first chapter. You know, we'll have three other chapters. But
Speaker 3: what I can say is, you know, difficult to link,
Speaker 3: you know, a brand advertising with dregs sales. But what
Speaker 3: I could say right now is as we close quarter three,
Speaker 3: which we just reported, women's sales were up, you know,
Speaker 3: close to eleven percent. I Iconic five oh one was
Speaker 3: up double digit and I you know, so that's what
Speaker 3: we believe continues over time.
Speaker 2: Our meat stick with us. We're going to come back
Speaker 2: with her Meat Singh, chief financial officer at Levi Strassen Company.
Speaker 2: He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive at Brokers studio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to and watching Bloomberg Business Week. I want
Speaker 2: to get right back to har Meat Singh, chief financial
Speaker 2: Officer at Levi Strauss Company. He joins us here in
Speaker 2: the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. We were chatting a little
Speaker 2: bit and I was telling you you've been at the
Speaker 2: company what since twenty thirteen. Yeah, you guys went public
Speaker 2: about five years ago again on the New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2: I was at that IPO because I was working on
Speaker 2: the floor of the exchange back then, and you guys
Speaker 2: were able to do something that I think in the
Speaker 2: you know, more than one hundred year history of the
Speaker 2: New York Stock Exchange has not ever been done before,
Speaker 2: which is allowed jeans on the floor on the trading floor.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of rules of the New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2: One of them is no genes allowed. I came in
Speaker 2: that day, everybody was decked out.
Speaker 3: In jeans, and wasn't everybody looking great? Oh yeah, Levis, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was Lewis jeans. And you know that was you know,
Speaker 3: part of the deal we did with ny I see,
Speaker 3: you know, as we were debating Nico and Nastac, you know,
Speaker 3: we said, hey, if you can change the floor on
Speaker 3: the day of the listing and make it a denim flow,
Speaker 3: you know, we are in. And they were able to
Speaker 3: do that and into a wonderful, you know, wonderful morning
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, I think beginning of a new chapter.
Speaker 2: For the company understanding how things work between the New
Speaker 2: York Stock Exchange and the NASDAC. I think that they
Speaker 2: probably didn't even have to check with anyone. They probably
Speaker 2: just said yes at that moment, Harmida, I promise we
Speaker 2: get back to the idea of going direct consumer and
Speaker 2: building that relationship one on one with the consumer.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Nike tried to do this over the last few years
Speaker 2: and they really alienated the foot lockers of the world
Speaker 2: who were such a big part of their business. And
Speaker 2: now there's a new CEO Nike. They're trying to turn
Speaker 2: that ship around, repair that relationship with those retailers. How
Speaker 2: do you do this but not alienate alienate the brick
Speaker 2: and mortar stores who for so long have sold your products.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. We love our wholesale customers. The way strategy,
Speaker 3: and the second pillow of a strategy is DDC first,
Speaker 3: but it's not DDC only.
Speaker 2: The whole CTC director can a.
Speaker 3: Director consumer wholesale is in a big compliment to how
Speaker 3: we're going to grow the business. You know. The reason
Speaker 3: d DC is important is allows us to provide more
Speaker 3: of a head to two assortment. We can drive the
Speaker 3: consumer experience and it's actually a proof point for wholesale
Speaker 3: retailers to see how the product is taking ship. So
Speaker 3: our new product introductions, we have a wonderful product pipeline
Speaker 3: hits the dd C flow first, the wholesale customers see
Speaker 3: how it is performing, and then they buy into it.
Speaker 3: We need wholesale customers largely because you know, to be
Speaker 3: the market leader, we have to reach out to consumers
Speaker 3: in a far and beyond and the only way to
Speaker 3: do that is is having a combination of a successful
Speaker 3: DDC business and a successful wholesale business.
Speaker 4: So I imagine ideally, like you would love to see
Speaker 4: the DTC base be new customers, adding like net new
Speaker 4: customers to the business. But is there a risk that
Speaker 4: this cannibal lies is the wholesale customer and that they
Speaker 4: shift over.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's a very good question. I've been
Speaker 3: asked that a couple of times, and we have not
Speaker 3: seen any evidence of cannibalization. The other pieces in the US,
Speaker 3: our d d C offer is what we call tier
Speaker 3: one and Tier two, so it is the best and
Speaker 3: the better the offer for wholesale customers, more tier three.
Speaker 3: We are talking to a few wholesale customers to introduce
Speaker 3: our tier two offer because in the top fifty to
Speaker 3: sixty dollars, you know, there is the consumer that wants
Speaker 3: the higher tier product. So we're not seeing cannibalization. We
Speaker 3: also don't see cannibalization between the different two channels within
Speaker 3: d DC, which is e commerce and our stores and
Speaker 3: in fact consumers now as you know, you know, like
Speaker 3: a seamless you know, shopping experience, so our view is
Speaker 3: that both channels can grow. DDC grows probably faster because
Speaker 3: we control the channel. We're able to drive the experience
Speaker 3: and have a head to do.
Speaker 2: Assaltman, we're talking a lot about the US election. It's
Speaker 2: top of mind here for us. My question is not
Speaker 2: about the politics of this, but about how you're potentially
Speaker 2: preparing for another Trump administration given the tariffs that you
Speaker 2: experienced during the first Trump administration, when Trump put European
Speaker 2: still in aluminum ex sports tariffs on those, and then
Speaker 2: you guys were hit with tariffs on jeans. So there's
Speaker 2: that part of it, and then a potential more tariffs
Speaker 2: between the US and China. How do you plan for that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we've been around for one hundred and
Speaker 3: seventy years, you know, and we've seen different administrations. The
Speaker 3: business and the brand has grown through different administrations, and
Speaker 3: so from our perspective, you know, we believe that. And
Speaker 3: you know when we guided quote a full and we
Speaker 3: talked about a sequential progression, you know, our belief is
Speaker 3: the brand continues to grow. To your question about tariffs.
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago, we were importing from China
Speaker 3: into the US about fifteen sixteen percent of the product.
Speaker 3: Over the years, we've scaled that down, so the imports
Speaker 3: into the US from China about a percentage going instead.
Speaker 3: And because we have a supply chain, we're able to
Speaker 3: cross source it across different geographies. So you know, we've
Speaker 3: been able to cross source it from other countries in
Speaker 3: Asia and think Vietnam, think Bangladesh, think Pakistan, And that's
Speaker 3: really what's really helped us, the cross sourcing strategy. Besides
Speaker 3: the fact that we're not concentrated significantly in anyone country
Speaker 3: makes a difference. And so our view is that you know,
Speaker 3: any administration, you know, we'll be able to continue to grow.
Speaker 2: What about retaliatory tariffs from the European Union or other
Speaker 2: countries on your own products.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, we have a strong business
Speaker 3: in Europe. If you have to cross source, we can.
Speaker 3: I think the end of the day is really how
Speaker 3: does it impact the consumer? You know, tariffs could mean
Speaker 3: higher pricess for the consumer, and that is something that
Speaker 3: we will, you know, tackle as the time comes along.
Speaker 3: Our products provide good value, okay, and if they're in
Speaker 3: fashion and they're you know, we bring in innovation. The
Speaker 3: consumer is going to gravitate and open the checkbook to
Speaker 3: buy our products. So you know, as we think through it,
Speaker 3: we have contingency plans in place in case, you know,
Speaker 3: different scenarios play out and we'll we'll be able to
Speaker 3: tackle through them.
Speaker 4: Is it tempting to think about a fifteen percent corporate tax,
Speaker 4: right and what you might do with all that money
Speaker 4: that's not paid in taxes?
Speaker 3: You know, I have a wonderful tax group that you know,
Speaker 3: plan different tax opportunities all the time. But you know,
Speaker 3: our view is as good corporate citizens, you know, we
Speaker 3: have to pay the pay the taxes and that.
Speaker 4: Is a noble thing to say.
Speaker 3: They and you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it's very important for us to you know, provide great
Speaker 3: value to our consumers and build the oil fans, and
Speaker 3: that's what we focus on.
Speaker 2: I gotta say, not many of our guests can pull
Speaker 2: off head to toe denim. And it's not just that,
Speaker 2: it's also the shirt as well. Harmy, you're one of
Speaker 2: those folks who can do that. Har Meat sing cfo
Speaker 2: at Levi Strauss joining us here in the Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: Thanks to him, Thanks Studio Good.
Speaker 2: Her Meat's going to be featured in the forthcoming issue
Speaker 2: of Bloomberg's CFO Briefing newsletter. You can sign up for
Speaker 2: it now at Bloomberg dot com, slash account, slash newsletters,
Speaker 2: slash CFO Briefing.
Speaker 4: CFO hyphen Briefing.
Speaker 2: Oh, don't miss that is not going to work. It
Speaker 2: will not check out that newsletter though. You also just Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: Just google Bloomberg Newsletters.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I'm sure to come up. We got a
Speaker 4: whole bunch of them out there.
Speaker 1: Things Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio and Television.
Speaker 2: It is Bloomberg Business Week. That is Molly Smith in
Speaker 2: for Carol Masser this afternoon. Mary Smith, Bloomberg News Economics Editor.
Speaker 4: I think we've hit the director of titles for me
Speaker 4: today about the same things. Good to be here, Tim,
Speaker 4: and we'rearded. Yes, I wanted to come in for our
Speaker 4: final guests of the day. Wow, we're getting really close
Speaker 4: to the end here. It's been such a nice afternoon.
Speaker 2: We're gonna good to have you with us. And we
Speaker 2: got a great guest right now.
Speaker 3: We do.
Speaker 4: Yes. So while LGBTQ acceptance is at an all time high,
Speaker 4: so is bullying and discrimination. We're bringing back Sarah Kate Ellis.
Speaker 4: She's the CEO and president of GLAD and that stands
Speaker 4: for help me out here, tim the Oh, my gosh,
Speaker 4: I should have had this ready, Sarahkate. Sarah Kate's going
Speaker 4: to bring.
Speaker 2: It in Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. But everybody refers to
Speaker 2: it these days as GLAD.
Speaker 4: That's right, That's why I was so reliant. I'm glad,
Speaker 4: but I should have had that al ready, my bad.
Speaker 4: So Sarah Kate. Alice is joining us now. She's here
Speaker 4: to talk to us on Spirit Day, the world's most
Speaker 4: visible anti bullying day of action and support of LGBTQ youth.
Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us here, Sarah Kate. You join us
Speaker 4: back in June to talk about the complexities around celebrating
Speaker 4: Pride Day. Hopefully Spirit Day a more positive day. Tell
Speaker 4: us about that and the celebration around it today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so well, thank you for having me. And we
Speaker 5: are just glad these days we never we no longer
Speaker 5: go based on the acronym, so anyway we do this.
Speaker 5: This is our fourteenth year, and this is about uplifting
Speaker 5: LGBTQ youth because we actually know they have it the
Speaker 5: hardest in this world figuring out who they are. They
Speaker 5: might not be in accepting environments, they might not be
Speaker 5: in homes where it's okay to be their true and
Speaker 5: authentic self, and they're a little trapped, and we wear
Speaker 5: purple to let them know that we're standing with them,
Speaker 5: and that we're standing against hate and bullying. And so
Speaker 5: this is the most visible day for LGBTQ youth to
Speaker 5: let them know that we're standing with them. And I
Speaker 5: throughout the years, this is my eleventh year doing Spirit Day,
Speaker 5: I've had kids come up to me across the country
Speaker 5: who said, who are now adults actually, and said that
Speaker 5: when they were teens and they were living in their
Speaker 5: hometowns and they couldn't be themselves, they saw Spirit Day
Speaker 5: and it gave them hope, and it gave them a
Speaker 5: view into the future. And so that's why we do.
Speaker 2: This, Sarah, Sarah Kate. So much has shifted in recent years,
Speaker 2: in the years that you've been doing this, and also
Speaker 2: you know, in the close to forty years that CLAD
Speaker 2: has been around, there's just been huge moments of transformation.
Speaker 2: One of the things I want to talk to you
Speaker 2: about today was the ty part of the LGBTQ movement,
Speaker 2: Because right now, with less than three weeks ago ahead
Speaker 2: of the election, you see a lot of talk about
Speaker 2: what legislation is happening, how different people feel about anti
Speaker 2: trans bills throughout the United States. It's such a huge
Speaker 2: topic of conversation. I'm just wondering, from your perspective, what
Speaker 2: the media is getting wrong in your view, what the
Speaker 2: presidential candidates are getting wrong, what you believe the electorate
Speaker 2: needs to understand about the trans movement in the US.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for asking that, because on this day
Speaker 5: of anti bullying, the biggest bully in town is a
Speaker 5: presidential candidate who's running Trump and has been for the
Speaker 5: trans community and is actually running ads in battleground states
Speaker 5: right now that is trying to use trans people as
Speaker 5: a political wedge issue. And I just want to say
Speaker 5: a couple of things about that. One is trans people
Speaker 5: are people. They're human, And I think there's such a
Speaker 5: small piece of the population too to get that so
Speaker 5: much emphasis when there are so many issues that are
Speaker 5: so important to Americans today. Actually, the latest poll asked
Speaker 5: about twenty two issues that were important to Americans. The
Speaker 5: last issue was twenty two, and that was how people
Speaker 5: thought about trans issues. People aren't interested in talking about them.
Speaker 5: They're not kitchen table issues, and they want people to
Speaker 5: live in autonomy. That's his American value, to live the
Speaker 5: life that you love in your own terms, on your
Speaker 5: own way. So I think that it is being used
Speaker 5: to create fear and to stoke hate, but it's not
Speaker 5: a value American value fear and hate, and so it's
Speaker 5: not polling well. We also did a poll at lad
Speaker 5: that found out that about fifty percent of voters felt
Speaker 5: that politicians who villainized and victimized trans people lost them.
Speaker 5: They weren't interested in them anymore because they thought, if
Speaker 5: you treat the most marginalized people that way, how will
Speaker 5: you treat other people? And so I think it is
Speaker 5: a really big issue right now because it is being
Speaker 5: used to create fear in our society.
Speaker 4: But it doesn't seem like it's working. To your point,
Speaker 4: it's not working.
Speaker 5: It hasn't worked in the past several elections actually, because
Speaker 5: there have been a number of politicians. So one thing
Speaker 5: that is really important for people to understand in context
Speaker 5: here is that seventy percent of Americans say they don't
Speaker 5: know someone who's trans, So that means that those people
Speaker 5: are learning about trans people through the media. And your
Speaker 5: initial question was, what is the media getting wrong here?
Speaker 5: The media is getting wrong that they are repeating or
Speaker 5: airing this hate and villainization of the trans community because
Speaker 5: it's not accurate, and so they're stoking the fires by
Speaker 5: just not giving it context. And so I think it's
Speaker 5: a really important moment in time for us, and I
Speaker 5: think it's an opportunity. At LAD. What we did was
Speaker 5: we created ads. You can see a bunch of them
Speaker 5: at here we are now dot com, and we're running
Speaker 5: them in those battleground states because it's introducing trans people
Speaker 5: to everyday Americans in their community. And that way we're
Speaker 5: connecting the dots and taking away the fear. And it's
Speaker 5: the same formulas use for gay people back in the day.
Speaker 2: Sarah Kate Ellis, thanks so much for stopping buy Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
Speaker 2: She's CEO and president over at GLAD