Paula Deen loses corporate sponsors, but gains book sales, cruises, and Glenn Beck
Chicken-fried liability Paula Deen continues to not sit well within her corporate homes, with Wal-Mart and Target now saying they will phase out carrying all Paula Deen products, concerned that they’re no longer appropriate for Wal-Mart and Target’s discerning clientele. (And certainly, Wal-Mart wants nothing to do with accusations of racial discrimination.) Similarly, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has decided maybe Paula Deen isn’t the best representation for healthy diabetic living, with each of these companies joining the Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Caesars Entertainment, and Home Depot in attempting to distance themselves from Deen amid her ongoing PR disaster. Meanwhile, QVC has said it will keep her off any broadcasts in the near future, while both it and Sears are said to be “evaluating their relationships” with Deen, and whether those relationships—like those within your own family—can be smoothed over with time and contractual obligations.
In short, it seems like everyone is jumping ship on Paula Deen, except for those who are literally jumping onto Paula Deen’s ship: The Hollywood Reporter notes that sales for Deen’s annual “Paula Deen Cruise” are booming, with fans reportedly making a point of saying they “would never go on a cruise and would go on this one with Paula.” (Because if it means showing their loyalty, just this once will Paula Deen fans allow themselves to be self-indulgent.) Indeed, the demand to sail the Earth’s dippin’ areas with Paula Deen has proved so overwhelming, there are now two cruises scheduled for next year, both winter and summer, to accommodate the many people looking to feast on shared outrage and omelet bars.
And though not everyone can purchase a cruise ticket in order to make sure a multimillionaire doesn’t suffer any further, others have found a more affordable avenue by purchasing her cookbooks—a groundswell of support that’s sent Paula Deen’s New Testament to No. 1 on the Amazon bestseller list. Though it’s not due out until October, preorders for New Testament—a sequel to Deen's Southern Cooking Bible that chronicles the birth of the Butter Jesus—is currently beating out books from Khaled Hosseini, Stephen King, Dan Brown, and even George R. R. Martin’s Song Of Ice And Fire series. And judging by the reviews for Deen’s other cookbook, as with the cruise, most of these purchases seem to be motivated less by interest in Deen’s now-unfortunately-subtitled, Lightened Up Southern favorites, than in the equally salty taste of pure spite.
Of course, there is also the totally free option of ranting on the Internet, as so many angry Deen fans are now doing in Facebook comment rants on the pages of the companies that have dropped her (or in the comment sections of the articles about those comments). Or save time by watching human Facebook comment rant Glenn Beck compare Paula Deen to Martin Luther King Jr.—who, like Deen spoke his mind and was subsequently martyred by political assassination, the 1960s equivalent of major retailers no longer selling your cookware.