The Sept. 30 report
ABC News reported on Sept. 30, 2026, that eating-disorder charities called an Eli Lilly sponsorship problematic. Vogue World Milan had listed Mounjaro as a sponsor. Fashion journalist Patty Huntington told ABC that Lilly had already sponsored Vogue World Hollywood and the Met Gala, and that this was the first time she had seen that public criticism. The piece names no dollar figure and no sales hit. Vogue and Condé Nast are not in the BuyWokeFree database. This post will not invent a score for a publisher we have not rated.
The question people type is smaller than the headline. Is Eli Lilly woke?
The published score is 20. The label is mildly woke. A sponsor line on a fashion slate does not move that number. We do not raise a score because a charity objected, and we do not cut one because a company once paid for a gala.
What the 20 counts
Lilly is not a brand you swap at the cooler. The published profile starts in Indianapolis in 1876. Patients know Mounjaro, Zepbound, and Humalog. 2024 revenue passed $45 billion, with a workforce above 40,000. LillyDirect opened in 2024 under CEO David Ricks and sells some medicines direct, including self-pay Zepbound vials. A prescription is not a jersey. The card counts published programs.
ESG is the quiet chapter. Lilly publishes annual sustainability reporting on climate, site environmental numbers, and access to medicine. LillyCares is the patient-assistance program. In 2023 the company adopted $35 out-of-pocket insulin caps. That is a real consumer number and ordinary pharma infrastructure, not a culture campaign on the box. It does not, by itself, pin a drugmaker at 100.
DEI is the mixed chapter. Lilly has kept global diversity programming. Its UK operation has published DEI pages describing employee networks, including an LGBTQ Allies group. The published profile also records a retreat: the 2024 proxy dropped DEI language and removed a section on racial-justice commitments. A deleted proxy section is not a zero, and it is not a parade.
The lawsuit stays in the allegation box. In June 2025 a race-discrimination suit, North v. Eli Lilly and Company, was filed in Maryland federal court. The plaintiff alleged discriminatory treatment. The case was dismissed in February 2026 after a settlement conference. No public terms and no admission. That is not a verdict, and it is not an empty file. The score summary records the February 2026 settlement and stops.
What the profile could verify on LGBTQ activity sits inside HR, not on a product. HRC's page for Lilly has shown a 95. We have not verified that figure as a perfect-score award, and we have not confirmed Lilly on an Equality 100 list for 2026. No verified U.S. consumer Pride line. No verified parade sponsorship. No rainbow LillyDirect promotion on the card. Set that beside Johnson & Johnson, which scores 90, extremely woke. The published J&J card cites Care With Pride across more than 12 brands, a perfect HRC CEI score, a CEO Action signature, and deep DEI programs that have since been scrubbed from public pages. Employer policy and packaging are different receipts. Lilly has the first on the record we checked. We have not verified the second.
Politics is where Lilly splits from the industry habit. The published profile, reading OpenSecrets, puts LillyPAC's 2023-2024 contributions at about 40 percent Democratic and 60 percent Republican. That is mixed, access-style pharma giving. David Ricks talks drug pricing and obesity-care access in public. He is not running a culture-war account. A two-party PAC at this size is uncommon. It is one reason the score is 20 and not 90.
The pharma ladder
Pfizer scores 100, extremely woke. The published card cites ESG reporting, DEI programs with racial hiring quotas, a Pride Journal and LGBTQ event sponsorships, 19 consecutive perfect scores on the HRC Corporate Equality Index, $2.76 million in 2024 political spending, and CEO Action for Diversity signatory status.
Merck scores 100, extremely woke. Shareholders voted 99 to 1 to reject anti-DEI proposals. Perfect HRC score. CEO Action signatory since 2017. That vote is a harder receipt than a sponsor logo.
AbbVie scores 100, extremely woke. The card cites ESG Action Reports, extensive EEDI programs, Pride employee groups, a perfect HRC CEI score, PAC giving that leans Democratic, and a CEO who signed both CEO Action and the Business Coalition for the Equality Act.
- Eli Lilly: 20, mildly woke
- Johnson & Johnson: 90, extremely woke
- Pfizer: 100, extremely woke
- Merck: 100, extremely woke
- AbbVie: 100, extremely woke
Lilly at 20 is not a clean bill. Mildly woke means the programs are real, the consumer campaign is not, and the politics do not match the 100s. The wider set of scored names is on our pharmaceuticals and biotechnology category page. Most national names there are not mild.
What a sponsor line does not prove
Huntington's comment is the date check. She told ABC the Hollywood World sponsorship and the Met Gala sponsorship were already on the books. A "just happened" frame fails. A charity calling the association problematic is a criticism of a weight-loss drug beside a fashion show. It is not proof that Lilly funded a hiring quota, and it is not a sales figure. ABC published neither a dollar nor a boycott tally. We will not supply one.
We refused the same invention on Target. Target still scores 71, extremely woke. Diversity.com, updated September 2026, put FY2025 net sales at $104.8 billion, down 1.7 percent, with full-year comps down 2.6 percent. The Aug. 19, 2026 release put Q2 net sales at $26.5 billion, up 5.3 percent, comps up 3.8 percent, and traffic up 3.6 percent. A May 2026 fact sheet said Target ended three-year DEI goals, the REACH program, and HRC Corporate Equality Index participation, and renamed Supplier Diversity to Supplier Engagement. The company says its $2 billion Black-owned business commitment was fulfilled in early 2026. Pastor Jamal Bryant ended his campaign on March 11, 2026, with no policy reversal. Other organizers did not. None of those documents isolates a boycott dollar. The 71 did not move.
Starbucks is the other standing receipt. The score is still 100. Fox Business, Anders Hagstrom, Sept. 24, 2026, quoted COO Mike Grams: about 250 North American coffeehouses would close, about 1 percent of more than 18,000 stores. The same piece reported that Starbucks will pay Florida $1 million and will not use race- and sex-based goals, quotas, or preferences companywide. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the deal is nationwide, not Florida-only. The lawsuit was filed in December 2025. Call that an announcement from Sept. 24, not a checked store list. A settlement and a closure plan are not an automatic demotion.
Verdict
Does Lilly behave like Pfizer? The cards say no. 20 against 100. A fashion credit is not a new DEI policy, and it is not a reason to treat a prescription like a soda boycott. Watch the 2024 proxy retreat. If a verified U.S. consumer Pride line or a confirmed perfect HRC award shows up in a dated source, reopen the score. Until then the number is 20.