A Pepsi boycott by supporters of Donald Trump was sparked by an anti-Trump comment swirling around social media that the company’s CEO apparently never made.
Twitter users claimed that PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi made a statement telling Donald Trump supporters to “take their business elsewhere,” reported CNN. She never said that, but the fake quote was picked up by several sites, including Truthfeed and Gateway Pundit.
A #BoycottPepsi hashtag began to circulate on many people’s Twitter feeds, with people saying Nooyi “loathed” Donald Trump and “hated” his supporters, Fortune noted.
Trump supporters denounced the remarks on YouTube videos about an event where Nooyi spoke last week, the New York Post noted.
“Indra Nooyi just made a multi-million dollar mistake! I for one will be boycotting Pepsi products until she resigns,” wrote one person in the video’s comments section.
“Sorry everybody. We can’t buy @Pepsi products anymore either,” right-wing commentator Stefan Molyneux tweeted.
The fake quote came after Nooyi had actually congratulated Trump on his victory, despite also speaking out against the “rhetoric” that was used throughout the election.
“How dare we talk about women that way,” which is what Nooyi actually said at the New York Times Dealbook conference after being asked about the election and domestic violence in the NFL, CNN Money noted.
“I had to answer a lot of questions, from my daughters, from my employees, they were all in mourning,” Nooyi said.
“First of all, I want to congratulate President-elect Donald Trump because the election is over. We should mourn for those of us who supported the other side. But we have to come together and life has to go on,” she added, Fortune noted.
“I never thought I’d have to answer those questions,” she said. “The first thing we all have to do is to assure everybody in the United States that they are safe. Nothing has changed because of this election.”
Pepsi wasn’t the only company to become a victim of fake news after the election.
Over the weekend, a white supremacist site published an article claiming that New Balance was the “official brand of the Trump Revolution,” causing some customers to burn their New Balance shoes.