Innocent drinks asks "what is okay to say?" on trans issues, get enough backlash to delete their entire tweet thread.

Innocent drinks are your yummy fancy juice and smoothie mixes that we all have become fans of, as it's easy fruit, vitamins, and just plain good for you stuff that's easy to grab and drink on the go.

Today, their social media creative team decided to ask "What are we allowed to say?" in a thread on Twitter, and with the help of the controversial "Mermaids" charity in the UK - the charity that was recently scrapped by the NHS and the Tavistock clinic after an outcry from medical professionals - began lecturing their fruit-juice fans about their stance on trans issues.

Tons of replies to @innocent on Twitter asked if they never read the news, and offered links and information about what the controversial trans-activist group Mermaids does. The Innocent tweet thread was soon archived by archives crawler, but it doesn't capture the full onslaught of replies.

Mermaids is currently under investigation by the regulatory body the Charity Commission, about the governance and management of the transgender children’s charity. The statutory inquiry was opened after an earlier lower-level regulatory compliance case launched in September of last year in response to safeguarding allegations and reports that the charity had given breast binders to teenagers as young as 13 years old.

Soon, innocent drinks responded quickly by not only deleting the entire thread that the trans-activist group Mermaids advised them on - but they also decided to explain why.

A note from us. pic.twitter.com/ZIdxRRE7IW

— innocent drinks (@innocent) May 30, 2023

"One of the things we care most about at innocent is people", the brand explains, "That's why we have affinity groups, which are safe spaces for people that work here to share experiences around protected characteristics like race, disability, or gender. And these groups help us understand what life's like for each other."

"One of the ways we do that is by bringing in guest speakers, and those talks are open to whoever wants to know more. Over the years, we've had talks on things like autism and neurodiversity, racial equality, and most recently gender diversity."

"Today we posted about what we learned from one of these talks, and in the past few hours, we've started to see lots of comments that weren't in line with our values. We always want to make sure our social media channels are respectful and inclusive, which is why we've deleted the thread."

In short, they couldn't keep up with hiding the replies. But this explanation may have actually made things worse, judging by the replies to it. It may even have opened the brand up to legal trouble as sex is a protected characteristic of the Equality Act not 'gender identity'.

‘Gender’ isn’t a protected characteristic, gender reassignment is.

Not understanding equality law isn’t a good look for a major employer.

— bettytasticss Doesn’t give a Foucault about Butler (@bettytasticss) May 30, 2023

Indeed @CocaCola_GB , you're a publicly listed company. Mis representing the Equality Act 2010 IN WRITING isn't just a bad look, it could lead you into some serious legal waters.

— Scott (@SChristyJones) May 30, 2023

There are also plenty of people suggesting that they repost the thread, but with replies turned off. In fact, some seem angry that innocent caved - "If you’re not going to show up for the LGBTQ+ community with your whole chest then don’t show up at all." Indeed, this makes the whole prior thread look "performative" as Matt Sibley says.

Massive mistake to delete the tread. It makes any allyship you had look extremely performative. You should have turned off comments and hidden replies, not Yankee the whole thing.

— Matt Sibley (@mattsibleycopy) May 31, 2023

Just turn the replies off? If you’re going to performatively post about LGBTQ+ issues don’t just delete the post once your brand is getting backlash from the hateful right.
If you’re not going to show up for the LGBTQ+ community with your whole chest then don’t show up at all.

— harry x (@harryjonesxx) May 30, 2023

I really appreciated the original tweet thread, and believe that it should be reposted but with replies turned off. You've caved to bigots and bullies by deleting it, which is what they wanted.

Please reconsider.

— Conor Bredin (@Conor_The_Geek) May 30, 2023

Repost it with replies turned off. Stand by your values, stop the trolls derailing it, and ensure your support isn’t seen as conditional ❤️🏳️‍⚧️

— Dylan / દિલન (@dylan_patel) May 30, 2023

All of the replies to innocent - regardless if they liked or disliked the original thread - have more marketing mastery than whoever is running that social media account.

The people pointing out that Mermaids is under investigation and has a trustee who promotes support for pedophiles are rightly calling out the brand's poor research, while the people who are calling out how the thread looks 'performative' now that is has been deleted are absolutely right. You can't, as brand, just pretend to care - you either do or you don't. Whatever-washing advertising just doesn't fly anymore.

You make smoothies. Stay out of politics 👍

— Watson (@ImWatson91) May 30, 2023