As U.S. President Donald Trump continues his push to acquire Greenland, there is 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 especially over the weekend of Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, there have been spikes in postings on social media pushing for this new boycott of Estée Lauder, according to Google Trends analytics.
Some 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, among dozens of others.
While it remains 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 become the “51st state.”
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“Consumers are operating today with a tremendous deficit of trust, and when instances like this come along, it just sort of reinforces that lack of trust in society and it really creates a situation where consumers feel the need in any way they can to fight back and to punish companies 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 could 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 dependent on the global market 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 down to the Oval Office. He said a prominent 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 at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday and claimed that although Greenland is a member of NATO, the Danish territory and its allies have not done enough to ensure security in 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 company for its response to the assertions made in The Guardian article and whether it is 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 may not be easy to dismiss.
“There is no responsibility being taken for what has now become an international incident that could affect the lives of millions upon millions of people across Greenland, Canada, Europe,” says Stephens.
“So that indeed is why consumers are so angry and fighting back in any way that they can.”
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