One way that Harry’s, the razor company, sought to carve its mark in the personal grooming industry was to perpetually tout its factory – a $100 million plant located in Germany that Harry’s owners declared was the finest razor-maker in the world.
In 2019, just seven short years after it launched, Harry’s had made enough of a dent in the market that the owners of Schick grooming products were ready to plunk down $1.4 billion for the company – that is, until the Trump administration blocked the sale last year.
But while it may be unique in that regard, Harry’s in the last few days has revealed it’s just another run-of-the-mill member of Cancel Culture.
Harry’s ended its sponsorship of Michael Knowles, a conservative podcaster with the Daily Wire, after a single complaint, made on Twitter.
“@harrys is sponsoring Michael Knowles. The same @michaeljknowles who is spreading homophobic and transphobic content. He had Joesph [sic] Nicolosi jr as a guest on his show and equates being trans to having schizophrenia. It is wrong that Harry’s or anyone sponsors this vile content,” tweeted user account Avi Das, according to the Media Research Center.
That tweet was delivered on March 7.
Twelve days later, Harry’s responded that it had canceled Knowles.
“Thanks for bringing this up,” the firm tweeted. “We condemn the views in this video, which are inexcusable & at odds with our longtime support of the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve ended our relationship with this show & are looking into our sponsorships to prevent any values misalignment going forward.”
Now, the cancellation is not unique.
What is different in this case is that, as the Media Research Center notes, Avi Das had been on Twitter for three months, and had just two followers.
Check out the ‘Cancel Corner‘, a new section launched where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
Not exactly your robustly angry mob armed with torches and pitchforks.
Dan Gainor, vice president of the center’s Free Speech America section, tweeted at Harry’s: “You responded to a 2 follower phony account, not to a customer.”
Which earned protests from Avi Das. The account is real, the user tweeted, and a Harry’s customer.
The Washington Examiner reported that Nicolosi is a doctor who runs the Reintegrative Therapy Association, which is for “patients who wish to change their behavior from homosexual to heterosexual tendencies.”
During the video in question, the Examiner noted, Nicolosi referenced a study that indicated some of his patients have conditions that “overlap with depression and schizophrenia.”
In response to Harry’s, Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing tweeted, “Harry’s makes great razors. That’s why we’ve been proud to advertise them for years. We know @harrys doesn’t share our values. Who cares? Economic decisions shouldn’t be political decisions. But now Harry’s has decided to declare that conservatives don’t deserve great razors.”
Boreing also pointed out of Harry’s, “I’m sure they’ll still take your money, but they don’t want to be SEEN taking it by woke Twitter accounts with 2 – yes, 2 – followers. What matters to Harry’s is being seen by the left as ideologically pure.”
“Of course,” he added, “Harry’s has always known our values. Heck, the clip they’re ‘mad’ about is from 2019. All that happened here is they got caught – caught committing the ‘inexcusable’ sin of selling good products to good people with different political values. That’s where we are.”
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