Facing a potentially brand-killing boycott of Rockstar Energy Drink by key sectors of its target demos — nightclubbing young gays and their non-gay, socially liberal cohorts — CEO Russ Weiner and his mother, CFO Janet Weiner — issued a statement last week in which they sought to distance themselves from the unabashedly homophobic views of radio ranter Michael Savage, who is their father and husband, respectively:

“Some have erroneously associated our company with offensive language directed at LGBT people, specifically statements coming from Michael Savage, who is not and has never been a shareholder or officer of Rockstar Energy Drink. On behalf of our company and directors, including myself and CFO Janet Weiner, I would like to take this opportunity to disavow any offensive statements directed toward LGBT people, including statements from Michael Savage. Rockstar assures our customers and the general public that our brand will never be associated with any language that does not affirm the essential dignity of every person in our diverse national community.”

The Weiners’ statement was prepared as part of a deal with an ad hoc group of gay rights activists and editors of political websites who had advocated boycotting Rockstar because of the connections — familial, ideological and, allegedly, financial — between Savage and the company’s senior management.

The resolution of the conflict — which, in addition to the statement, includes assurances from the Weiners that Rockstar will treat its gay employees fairly, as well as a pledge of $100,000 in contributions to gay-rights groups — also represents a reversal of Rockstar’s hamfisted initial strategy to stifle the boycott: hiring the high-priced law firm of OJ Simpson “dream team” lawyer Robert Shapiro to threaten bloggers and activists with lawsuits.

As a result of this strategy, the Weiners created a bizarre conundrum. Not only did Rockstar’s lawyers assert that bloggers who pointed to the connection between Savage and his family’s energy drink “defame” the product, but Savage himself made a statement revelatory of self-loathing in which he described attempts to tie him to Rockstar as a “McCarthyesque smear campaign.” These assertions prompt a question: Why would Savage’s radio sponsors want to advertise with a host whose association smears and defames their products.

Bullying bloggers and activists — who generally have few resources other their soapboxes and bullhorns — was clearly the wrong strategy. As we suggested in Pensito Review last month, “Paradoxically, the Weiners’ intimidation-by-lawsuit strategy will almost certainly produce the very outcome they seem desperate to avoid: making the Rockstar boycott a headline story and the subject of endless chatter on cable news.” Our take then was that “[instead] of lawyering up, a smarter — and cheaper — strategy would have been to hire a PR firm that specializes in damage control.”

We’re not suggesting the Weiners took our advice, of course, but rather that what needed to be done was so obvious that even a fool could see it.

A broad-strokes timeline of events leading up to the resolution of the boycott follows…

Timeline:

February 19, 2009: Rockstar signs a multi-year distribution deal with PepisCo, per Bev.NET:

Jumping from one multinational beverage company to its fiercest rival, Rockstar energy drink has signed a distribution agreement with PepsiCo Inc. that will end its deal with The Coca-Cola Company. Both companies hope the deal will give the country’s number-three brand more consistent coverage across the U.S. and increase PepsiCo’s presence in the energy drink category.

April 10: Michael Jones, an editor at Change.org, posts an article about the connection between Rockstar and Michael Savage. Later, Rockstar’s lawyers force Change.org to remove the article, which editors replace with this statement:

Note: We previously published an article and petition in this space relating to an alleged link between Rockstar and radio personality Michael Savage. Rockstar’s lawyers have contacted us alerting us to inaccuracies in the articles, which we have temporarily removed until we can conclude discussions with Rockstar counsel on an appropriate course of action.

April 23: Jones’ Change.org article is also cross-posted at the Bilerico Project, a gay news site. In the article, Jones lists some of Savage’s most hate-filled rants and calls for a boycott of Rockstar:

[Don't] buy Rockstar Energy Drink. And if you see a club — especially an LGBT club — serving it, please say something to the management.

April 27: Gaywired posts a story titled, “Website Exposes Rockstar Energy Drink Founders as Homophobes, Racists,” which links to the site “The Truth about Rockstar.”

(It is unclear when The Truth about Rockstar site was launched, however the group’s blog has archives going back to autumn 2008.)

Also on April 27: Gay activist Charles Tsai creates a Facebook group called “Don’t Drink Hate. BOYCOTT ROCKSTAR.” Over the next few days, 12,000 people friend the group, according to Tsai.

May 5: Michael Savage is officially banned by Great Britain because he fell “…into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country.”

May 11: Russ Weiner makes a $25,000 donation to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Democrat who unilaterally legalized gay marriage in the city in February 2004. (Michael Savage broadcasts from San Francisco, and Russ Weiner grew up in the Bay Area.)

May 22: In her politics blog at the San Francisco Chronicle, Carla Manrinucci, reports that Mayor Newsom returned the $25,000 donation to Russ Weiner after a supporter informed his campaign about The Truth about Rockstar website and the Rockstar boycott group on Facebook.

Marinucci called Rockstar’s CEO to get a response:

Russ Weiner, in a phone interview today, strongly denied the allegations. “‘The Truth about Rockstar’ site is full of misinformation,” he said, saying he started the firm “with $50,000 of my own money. It has nothing to do with my dad. He’s not an officer … he’s not the founder or the creator.”

In the same article, Michael Savage reveals his self-loathing by referring to attempts to associate his views with Rockstar as a “McCarthyesque smear campaign.”

May 27: Facebook deletes Tsai’s anti-Rockstar group.

May 28: Lawyers representing Rockstar contact Tsai and demand an apology.

June 2: To satisfy Rockstar’s lawyers, Tsai creates a new Facebook group called “Don’t Drink Hate. BOYCOTT ROCKSTAR* my apology.”

June 4: Gaywired reports that it has been contacted by Rockstar’s lawyers, who demanded a retraction of their description of Michael Savage as a Rockstar “founder” in the story published on April 27.

June 7: Facebook strips Tsai of his admin privileges for the new group.

June 8: Facebook changes the name of the group to “ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK FANCLUB!” (The exuberant punctuation is theirs.)

Tsai grabs the text of an apology to Rockstar apparently posted to the fan group by a Facebook employee that reads, in part:

Yes, this is a cave-in. It was decided it was not worth any legal repercussions [so] we now FULLY endorse Rockstar Energy Drink in every way! GO ROCKSTAR! YAY!

…Please let’s all focus on the AWESOMENESS that is ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK (as ordered by lawyers). Any past negative comments concerning ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK originatin[g] from this group were WRONG, LIES and SLANDER! GO ROCKSTAR!

…Once again, we APOLOGIZE publically for any slander towards ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK and salute them as the world’s most powerful energy drink! Go Rockstar!

June 10: Bil Browning, an editor at the Bilerico Project, reports that he was contacted by Rockstar’s lawyers, who threatened him with a lawsuit if he did not remove Jones’ April 23 post about the Rockstar-Weiner-Savage connections. He refused, but agreed to correct two inaccuracies in Jones’ piece:

1. “It [Rockstar Energy Drink] was co-founded by conservative radio host Michael Savage.”

2. “Michael Savage is reaping profits from the selling of Rockstar Energy Drink.”

Browning says the Rockstar lawyer he spoke with “made it perfectly clear he agreed Savage was a disgusting pig,” but that it was “unfair to the company to link Rockstar with Savage just because Michael Savage’s son, Russell Weiner, is the current CEO of RockStar.”

Also on June 10: Don Hazen and Tana Geneva at AlterNet report on the letter they got from Rockstar’s lawyers in an article titled, AlterNet Takes on Shock Jock Michael Savage and Gets Threatened With a Lawsuit.”

Mr. Savage is not affiliated with Rockstar in any manner. Alternet.org’s use of the article to tie Rockstar to Mr. Savage’s statements is wholly improper. Not only does it place Rockstar in a false light, but it constitutes defamation, both of which are objectional.

June 12: A Pensito Review editor displays his firm grasp on the obvious by suggesting the Weiners’ strategy of bullying bloggers will undoubtedly backfire and that they would do better to fire the lawyers and hire a firm that specializes in damage control.

June 15: Boycott supporters appear in the Los Angeles gay pride parade wearing “V Is for Vendetta” masks.

Late June/Early July: The Weiners negotiate a settlement to stave off the boycott with an ad hoc group of gay publishers and activists that includes Change.org, The Bilerico Project, The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), The Trevor Project, and Michael Rogers of PageOneQ.com.

July 9: The settlement is announced on Change.org.