Hershey Canada Women’s Day campaign sparks transphobic vitriol on Twitter

An ad campaign from Hershey Canada intended to highlight women trailblazers is being met online with transphobic hate.

To mark International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, Hershey Canada launched a campaign spotlighting five young Canadian women, whose faces appear on the brand’s chocolate bar wrappers. Each chocolate bar is meant to spotlight women using their voices and advocacy to contribute to systemic progress for women.

Women featured on chocolate bars were Autumn Peltier, an Indigenous rights and water activist; Naila Moloo, a climate technology researcher; Rita Audi, a gender and education equality activist; Kélicia Massala, the founder of Girl up Québec; and Fae Johnstone, a human rights activist and the executive director of consulting firm Wisdom2Action. Johnstone is transgender, which some hateful online voices are taking issue with.

The campaign was meant to celebrate women’s progress and acknowledge the ongoing fight for equity, Hershey’s Canada said. The company is donating up to $10,000 to each of the five women’s organizations and an additional $30,000 to Girl Up, a group that focuses on women’s equity.

But online trolls are pushing a countercampaign, calling to boycott the Hershey Co. — which was founded and is headquartered in Hershey.

Hershey’s inclusion of Johnstone sparked support from some and outrage from others, who said the company prioritized a person who wasn’t biologically born a woman. A Twitter hashtag calling to #BoycottHersheys was trending in the No. 1 spot in the United States and the No. 16 spot in Canada on Thursday morning.

Internationally, transgender visibility and rights remain a polarizing topic. A Pew Research Center survey last year found that 36% of Americans said society hadn’t gone far enough to accept people who are trans, while 38% said society had gone too far. Anti-LGBTQ ideology, including trans-exclusionary radical feminists — known as TERFS — remains an issue, according to human-rights groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On Twitter, where Johnstone announced her partnership with Hershey, replies were riddled with a mix of support and hatred. Some came to Johnstone’s defense.

Erin Marie Hogan, an actress, said in support of Johnstone, “She is a woman.”

According to Sarah McBride, the Human Rights Campaign’s national press secretary, TERF views — which exclude trans women from conversations about the gender — “deny the validity of transgender people and transgender identities.” TERF views are widely rejected by most feminists, LGBTQ supporters, and the mainstream medical community.

Still, the backlash has come from Twitter accounts that identify as both men and women, as well as anonymous accounts. Use of the #BoycottHersheys hashtag is also rising from supporters of Johnstone and the Hershey campaign in an attempt to outshine the negative comments.

When reached for comment, Johnstone said she and the Hershey communications team were working to issue a statement soon.