Amid a public relations crisis, Doritos announced it is ending its collaborations with controversial Spanish singer and trans activist Iván González Ranedo, better known by his stage name, Samantha Hudson, effective immediately.
Between Monday and Tuesday, the company that produces Doritos, PepsiCo, suffered a drop in its shares that ranged between 2 and 4 percent after thousands of users worldwide, but especially in Spain, called for a boycott in a case similar to that of Bud Light.
Productos del grupo @PepsiCo_ESP para incluir en el BOICOT por contratar a activistas pedófilos.
Que sepáis que si compráis alguno de estos productos estaréis financiando a gentuza como Samantha Hudson. pic.twitter.com/Uvb30cR2VD
— Arturo Villa 🇪🇸 (@ArturoVilla_) March 3, 2024
On this occasion, Hudson, a controversial trans artist who had his first claim to fame in 2015, collaborated in Doritos’ “Crunch Talks” campaign, publishing a video on TikTok together with influencer Alba Moreno last week.
Although the publication went seemingly unnoticed for several days, on Monday, many users found the campaign and recalled Hudson’s dark background.
Many reported that, in 2015, Hudson claimed to hate “raped women” and advocated for the abuse of children in a series of offensive posts on Twitter (now X).
Although Hudson was still a minor at the time, his tweets were incendiary enough to generate hundreds of criticisms over the years. Some of his worst tweets said: “I hate women who are victims of rape and who turn to self-help centers to overcome their trauma, annoying bitches”, “fucking bitch who is stuffed [in her outfit] and they let you in because you are a slut”, “I want to do thuggish things like stick a 12-year-old girl up her asshole” and “it makes me angry that I can’t kick Greta Thunberg in the face.”
Me da igual que tuviese 15, 17 o 20 años ... ¡ESTO NO ES NORMAL A NINGUNA EDAD!
Me gustaría saber que piensan en @salvameoficial del pasado "Twittero" de Samantha Hudson y su lamentable comportamiento...
¿Qué pasaría si esto lo escribe Rocío Flores?
Vuestra doble moral da asco. pic.twitter.com/fEzacPhTPi— La Rana Verde (@LaRana_Oficial_) January 10, 2022
Six years later, in 2021, Hudson spoke about his past tweets after deleting them and stated that he did not remember writing them and that he regretted them. He apologized and justified his comments by explaining that he was very young and reckless and thought his messages were “dark humor.”
After the Doritos campaign, Hudson’s tweets came to light again, and users also recalled several of his most controversial sayings, such as when he asked to outlaw the conservative party VOX or admitted on state television that he advocated “annihilating” the traditional family.
"I advocate for the destruction and for the annihilation of the traditional family."
Brand ambassador for Doritos and self-described pedophiIe Samantha Hudson pic.twitter.com/j4hPgmoaxi— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 4, 2024
In a statement to Rolling Stone magazine, a Doritos spokesperson addressed the entire controversy and explained why they stopped working with Hudson.
First, the spokesperson clarified that the company in Spain had published a video on Instagram in which Hudson appeared several days ago but that the trans artist was not an “ambassador” of the brand, as many reports indicated.
According to the Doritos spokesperson, the company had no knowledge of Hudson’s grotesque tweets until Monday, when calls for a boycott began.
That day, after the Doritos team supposedly found out about the tweets, they deleted Hudson’s video, immediately cutting off the business relationship with the trans artist.
“We have ended the relationship and stopped all related campaign activity due to the comments,” the Doritos spokesperson said. “We strongly condemn words or actions that promote violence or sexism of any kind.”
The spokesperson also told Rolling Stone that Hudson’s firing was not related to his “gender identity” but rather his history of inflammatory comments.
