
The Takeaway
For companies weighing their own DEI decisions, the key is to analyze audience sentiment, competitive trends, and brand reputation before making a move. In a politically charged landscape, staying in “listening mode” may be the smartest first step.
Target scraps its DEI program. Costco reaffirms its commitment to DEI. The data suggests that, from a public sentiment standpoint, neither approach paid off. But, as always, it’s more complicated than that.
Within hours of taking office in January 2025, President Trump set his sights on federal DEI programs. Days later, major consumer brands followed suit, announcing their own rollbacks. Target and Walmart led the charge. Meanwhile, other corporate giants took the opposite stance, reaffirming their DEI commitments. Costco, among them, went public with its decision to stay the course.
While the corporate world took sides, our clients started asking us: What should we do?
I’ll be honest—internally, we weren’t in perfect agreement. Our instincts leaned toward encouraging our partners to hold firm on DEI commitments because, well, that’s the world we want to live in. But could we, in good conscience, give that advice without assessing the risks, especially in the wake of the latest political shifts?
At ELM, we don’t make decisions based on gut feelings alone. We are committed to making recommendations based on data. So, we dove into the numbers to get a clearer picture and guide our clients accordingly. And what we found was… messy.

The Data Tells an Uncomfortable Story
When Target and Costco made their announcements, social media and news sites erupted. Discussion volume spiked. And for both companies, negative sentiment surged. At first glance, the takeaway seemed clear: You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. I wouldn’t want to be the CCO of either company this week.
But looking closer, a more interesting trend emerged.
When we filtered for "fan messages"—social media posts where users tagged or commented on the company’s official pages—the sentiment shift wasn’t identical. While Target faced overwhelming negative direct brand engagements on social media, Costco saw a comparatively modest dip, with a slight uptick in positive responses relative to overall volume.
Target Fan Messages: 1/21-1/27 ![]() | Costco Fan Messages: 1/21-1/27 ![]() |
Why does this matter? Direct engagement often signals intent. It’s one thing to tweet into the void, “Ugh, even Target is cutting DEI!” It’s another to go to Target’s Facebook page and call them out in the comments. People who take that extra step are more likely to be actual customers who care about the brand’s actions.
The directional data suggests that among likely customers, Target took a bigger reputational hit for its decision than Costco did. Not shown here in this data set, but worth noting, we’re detecting a trend that other brands who announced plans to keep DEI in place may be receiving more positive reactions compared to Costco, while negative posts tend to be driven by vocal political groups on X.
What This Means for Companies Navigating DEI
Announcing a change (or no change) to your DEI strategy is always a risk. But it’s a calculated one. Here’s how we’re helping our clients weigh the pros and cons:
Follow the data. Look at how your competitors are handling DEI and what kind of reactions they’re getting. Social listening tools are invaluable here—especially if your announcements typically generate 50+ engagements.
Know your audience. How will each of your audience segments react? And whose reaction matters most to your success? Employees, donors, investors, customers—all have different stakes. If you’re facing a divided audience (e.g., employees support DEI, but donors don’t), consider staying in “listening mode” to buy time while you gather more data. It’s not lost on us that the vocally anti-DEI Administration is also an influential audience for organizations that work with or rely on funding from public entities or the federal government.
Consider your mission and reputation. If your brand has long championed DEI, rolling it back could cost you credibility. Costco likely factored this into its decision—sticking to its values has long been part of its identity (just ask anyone about the $1.50 hot dog combo). If maintaining DEI aligns with your core brand, short-term backlash might be worth it.
Listening Mode
ELM is in listening mode. We’re constantly looking at the data as more announcements roll in. We’re talking to our colleagues in the PR and comms industry. We’re talking to our clients, journalists, HR experts, policy wonks, and labor lawyers. We’d love to talk to you, too.
NB: Twitter/X posts across topics and brands are increasingly negative overall. Stay tuned for future analysis on how X is devolving into a bastion of negativity.
Data collected and automated sentiment applied using Sprinklr’s social listening tool.
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