Doritos Spain faces backlash on Monday as news of the company announcing transgender artist Samantha Hudson as a brand ambassador of Spain sparked outrage over Hudson’s previous tweets involving a 12-year-old.
Over the past several years, there has been ongoing controversy surrounding the inclusion of the transgender community in brand campaign messaging and or products, as conservatives continue to call for boycotts. In April 2023, Bud Light became one of the first brands to face national attention and garner massive calls from conservatives to boycott the company amid its brief promotion involving a collaboration with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.
Over the weekend Doritos Spain, which falls under PepsiCo Spain’s branch of products, announced Hudson as a brand ambassador for the products including her in a 50-second promo called “Crunch Talks.”
Bags of Doritos are displayed in the Doritos Mart booth during TwitchCon 2023 Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center on October 20, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Doritos Spain faces backlash on Monday as news of the company announcing transgender artist Smantha Hudson as a brand ambassador of Spain sparked outrage over Hudson’s previous tweets involving a 12-year old.
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
Hudson is a transgender artist from Spain, who gained recognition through her social media presence and her YouTube channel where she shares fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle tips.
However, on Monday news of Hudson as brand ambassador sparked controversy as Hudson’s previous tweets resurfaced, triggering a call for a boycott.
Some have taken to X, formerly Twitter, to resurface the tweets and accuse Hudson of being a pedophile for some tweets that she published in 2015, regarding a 12-year-old, in which she tweeted, according to her, to be funny.
Newsweek has reached out to PepsiCo US and PepsiCo Spain via email for comment.
In addition, some have resurfaced other tweets of Hudson’s accusing her of hating women who have been victims of sexual abuse.
Newsweek has reached out to Hudson via Instagram direct message for comment.
X user End Wokeness slammed Doritos for their choice of ambassador and accused Hudson of being a pedophile, writing, “Doritos just picked Samantha Hudson as their brand ambassador in SpainSamantha Hudson: -Admitted to being a pedophiIe -Identifies as a non-binary trans girl -Openly mocked victims of child r*pe -An advocate for ‘annihiIating, completely destroying, and abolishing the traditional family’.”
X user Ian Miles Cheong noted the calls for a boycott writing on X, “Doritos is doubling down on wokeness by hiring Samantha Hudson, a transgender ‘woman’ and self-admitted p*do as its brand ambassador in Spain, resulting in calls for the boycott of the company’s products.”
Another X user, Alberto Caliu, asked if Doritos supports Hudson, writing in Spanish but translating to, “This Samantha Hudson is the new image of Doritos. Hello @Doritos , is this type of person your image? Do you support this?” with an image of a resurfaced tweet of Hudson’s.
PepsiCo Spain has yet to address the boycott or allegations regarding Hudson.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
