REBRAND PLAN: Corporate America’s secret agenda to keep DEI alive
In a notable shift reflecting broader political and cultural changes, corporate America is increasingly de-emphasizing or abandoning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, but some experts claim many companies might rebrand DEI initiatives to evade criticism.
Gravity Research reported a 98% drop in "DEI" mentions across Fortune 100 communications from January 2023 to May 2025, while The Conference Board noted a 68% reduction in the acronym's use in 2025 filings compared to 2024.
Jennifer Sey, CEO of XX-XY Athletics, argued that excessive DEI focus harms performance by diverting resources from merit-based hiring and core business functions, such as product development. This trend has accelerated under the second Trump administration, with 40 corporations making public DEI adjustments post-inauguration, and surveys indicating 20% of companies eliminated programs entirely since Trump's reelection in November 2024.
Executives appear relieved to move away from what Sey described as distracting mandatory trainings and non-merit-focused interviews, which she said undermine fiduciary duties to prioritize profitability. High-profile marketing failures, such as Bud Light's 2023 campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to a boycott and a sales drop, exemplify how "wokeness" can alienate customers, prompting a return to unifying, optimistic branding, as seen in their recent Super Bowl ad featuring Peyton Manning and Post Malone.
Beyond Bud Light and Target, which has faced similar scrutiny, companies like Walmart, McDonald's, Amazon, Meta, Google, IBM, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Tractor Supply, Lowe's, Ford, and Goldman Sachs have rolled back initiatives—ranging from ending supplier diversity goals and diverse-slate hiring to removing DEI-linked executive bonuses and disbanding internal teams. These moves often stem from conservative activism and reflect a broader retreat amid anti-DEI shareholder proposals at firms like Costco and JPMorgan Chase.
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However, many companies are not outright abandoning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives but are instead strategically rebranding them to mitigate backlash. According to recent analyses, this shift often involves replacing charged terms like "DEI" or "equity" with more neutral language such as "belonging," "inclusive culture," "talent development," or "fairness and access."
This allows organizations to continue fostering diversity agends without attracting scrutiny or legal challenges, particularly in light of the Trump administration's Executive Order 14173 in early 2025, which targeted DEI programs.
This rebranding manifests in various ways, from integrating DEI elements into broader HR strategies to adopting new frameworks like FAIR (fairness, access, inclusion, and representation), which prioritizes data-driven evaluations of operations to ensure equitable outcomes for all employees.
For instance, some firms are shifting away from mandatory DEI trainings toward voluntary "learning and development" sessions that address unconscious bias and team synergy, or reorienting supplier diversity goals under "business resilience" umbrellas. Surveys from 2025 and early 2026 indicate that while mentions of "DEI" in corporate communications have plummeted—dropping 98% in Fortune 100 disclosures from 2023 to mid-2025—actual program eliminations remain low, with only about 5% of companies fully scrapping initiatives. Instead, 22% reported increasing DEI budgets, and one in three firms that initially scaled back are reinstating efforts, suggesting a pivot toward subtler implementations.