Case study

Q:

1. What options did Chobani have in dealing with the Alex Jones allegations?

2. What were the risks in the Chobani pro-communications strategy?

3. Had Jones not folded so quickly after the Chobani lawsuit, what other communications options would you have proposed that Chobani’s founder consider?

By 2017, the issue of immigration had become a lightning rod for controversy around the world.

Conflict in Syria and parts of Africa, in particular, stimulated hundreds of thousands of refugees searching for a more peaceful place to reside. Europe was overrun with immigrants, causing strains on resources and political conflict. In the United States, candidate Donald Trump adopted the right-wing banner of reining in immigration, particularly from political hotspots in the Middle East.

Against this rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment emerged a most unusual communications battle, pitting, of all things, a yogurt company against a right-wing media personality. The year-long, bare-knuckles, public street fight between Chobani Yogurt and Alex Jones was unprecedented.

Yogurt Maker vs. Playground Bully

The battle began when the founder of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent, was moved by the problems of fellow-immigrants and began a campaign to hire refugees in his yogurt factories around America.

Ulukaya’s rags-to-riches story began with a small yogurt business in upstate New York and expanded to a factory in Twin Falls, Idaho, which employed 300 refugees. Additionally, Ulukaya began a Chobani foundation to help migrants.

Such pro-immigration policies attracted the wrath of right-wing media and websites, including Breitbart News, formerly headed by once Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon. Quick to join the attack on Chobani was the InfoWars.com website and “The Alex Jones Channel” on YouTube, controlled by Jones.

In particular, the Jones media was incensed by a report alleging that the Chobani Twin Falls factory was connected to a 2016 child sexual assault attack and a rise in local tuberculosis cases.

When Infowars aired its charges, Ulukaya was stunned, contending that his company had nothing to do with the reported attacks. And he was right. According to the Twin Falls County prosecutor, the assault case, which did indeed involve local refugees sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl, had nothing whatever to do with Chobani or its factory.

The fact his accusations were wrong meant little to Jones. The right-wing conspiracy theorist refused to back down and, instead, turned up his communications bull horn; besieging his loyal followers to join in the condemnation of the immigrant-run yogurt company.

Earlier, Jones had launched similar, public campaigns contending that the September 11 attacks on America were orchestrated by the U.S. government, and the 2012 massacre of children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was a hoax perpetrated by anti-gun advocates.

Jones was known for playing fast and loose with the facts and rarely backing down if someone dared to challenge him. As a consequence of the size and ferocity of the Jones megaphone, few of those who found themselves in Jones’ crosshairs were willing to take him on. Most felt that answering back against Jones’ accusations would only serve to bring more attention to Jones’ claims (Figure 3-4).

Picking a Fight with the Wrong Man

But in singling out the soft-spoken Chobani founder, Jones messed with the wrong adversary.

Ulukaya refused to take the undeserved criticism lying down. Rather, he decided to fight fire with fire and let the public know how he and his company were being unfairly targeted. In April 2017, Chobani filed a high-profile lawsuit against Jones and his media companies, accusing them of knowingly issuing false and defamatory reports about the company.

Predictably, Jones—who’d seen others try and fail to shut him up—came out swinging.

“We will defeat these people,” he broadcast to his followers. “This is my fight, this is your fight, this is our fight against a bunch of authoritarian, globalist, third- world populations allied with the global elite, who are totally coldblooded.”

The firebrand vowed to stay in this fight to the end and never surrender.

But Ulukaya refused to yield, ratcheting up the communication by accusing Jones and his media companies of acting with “actual malice” to harm Chobani’s reputation. Further, the company said it had endured “substantial damage” from the Jones campaign, which discouraged customers from purchasing Chobani yogurt.

A month after Chobani threw down the communications gauntlet, Jones folded like a cheap suit.

As part of an out-of-court settlement, Jones announced that the statements he had made about Chobani, “I now understand to be wrong.” Further, he acknowledged that all tweets and video he had posted against Chobani had been retracted and would not be reposted.

“On behalf of InfoWars, I regret that we mischaracterized Chobani, its employees and the people of Twin Falls, Idaho, the way we did,” summarized a repentant Jones.

In deciding to meet communication with communication, the yogurt company and its founder had successfully beaten back the big-mouth bully.