Bill Penzey, the owner of Penzey’s Spices, is putting his money where his mouth is by promoting on Facebook the impeachment of President Donald Trump, according to a report from Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) on Wednesday.
“According to advertising data released by Facebook, Penzeys Spices, a Wauwatosa-based spice company, spent $109,933 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7 posting and reposting an ad that called Trump’s phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘mandatory open and shut case for the impeachment,'” WPR reported.
The same report notes that Penzey claims the amount he has spent in support of impeachment is now over $124,000.
The cost of the ad campaign by Penzey in support of impeachment actually exceeds what Democratic candidate for president Elizabeth Warren spent on Facebook ads in support of impeachment, $20,000, during the same period, according to a report in Axios.
Penzey’s advertising on Facebook, ostensibly about promoting the direct marketing of spices by his company, has become so partisan that the social media company has reclassified Penzey’s ads to “about social issues, elections or politics.”
The owner of Penzey’s Spices has also made it a point to repeatedly insult potential Republican customers in his company newsletter by calling them racists. That pattern continued in this ad.
“The reality is the Republican Party has turned its back on conservative values and has instead come to embrace the ‘textbook’ racism of white nationalism,” Penzey wrote in the ad. “For the world’s greatest military power to embrace nationalism is scary-dangerous.”
Penzey told WPR that while he has heard from conservatives unhappy with his company engaging in politics, he does not plan to change his advertising strategy.
“I think in this coming election there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for businesses that have values to share those values with their customers,” he told WPR. “And I think that’s going to work out well for the businesses that do.”
However, Penzey wrote in the ad that the loss of business from conservatives has hurt the company.
“I’ve always seen our mission as promoting and protecting the kindness found at the heart of cooking,” Penzey wrote. “It’s cost us, but I don’t see any way of us being us without standing up to the cruelty the Republican Party is now promoting.”
Ironically, a recurring complaint in Penzey’s ads is how campaign finance laws allow conservative organizations to financially support Republican candidates. Yet Penzey continues to use his company and its revenue to support Democrats.
