[4][5][6][7] The word "woke", originally a slang term to describe increased awareness for racial injustice, has been adopted by various right-wing groups to label opposing ideas and their proponents.
[3] The phrase "get woke, go broke" is believed to have been coined by the American military science fiction author John Ringo in 2018.
The incident was reported in a right-wing website that has since ceased operation, Dangerous.com; it said that according to Ringo, the convention "pushed its conservative members out of its planning committee, attendance dropped over years, and it's now defunct."
One of the early incidents the phrase was invoked concerned the use of Colin Kaepernick in Nike's "Just Do It" ad campaign in September 2018, which drew criticism from Donald Trump and calls for its boycott.
This stance led to a dispute with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who had supported the bill's passage and later expansion to all grades K–12 and has repeatedly criticized Disney for being "woke"[21] and accusations of "grooming".
[27] Right-wing commentators have attributed the decline to Disney's "woke activism";[28] The New York Times, however, noted that the losses came from India after Disney+ lost the rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches, while the rest of the world showed an increase of 800,000 subscribers.
[33] During a conference call with investors on May 4, 2023, AB InBev's CEO Michel Doukeris said the drop in Bud Light sales "would represent around 1% of our overall global volumes for that period.
[42][43] Right-wing politicians and individuals used the slogan to refer to the knockout round loss of the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) against Sweden during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, particularly player Megan Rapinoe, who was noted for missing a penalty kick during the shootouts against Sweden's team.
[44] James Dator of SB Nation and Alex Abad-Santos of Vox reported the loss stemming from player injuries, organizational reasons and play, noting Rapinoe did not enter the field until extra time.
[47][48] Regarding Captain Marvel, Bethany Lacina, writing for The Washington Post, concluded that there likely was no strong conservative resistance when she analyzed search traffic and Fox News coverage of the film.
[49] Barbie's feminist themes and inclusion of a transgender actress triggered backlash from some conservatives, who argued that the film's overt messages made it less entertaining.