Bolsonaro supporters boycott Havaianas because they are too left-wing

Since Bolsonaro ended up in prison for attempting a coup, the Brazilian far right has found a new enemy: the Havaianas flip-flop brand, “cancelled” by Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters due to a television advert. The controversy arises fromactress Fernanda Torres – protagonist of I’m Still Here, the Brazilian film that won the Oscar for best international film – who in the commercial states that he hopes that the public does not start 2026 “with the right foot”, but “with both feet”. The Guardian reported the news.

Bolsonaro supporters interpreted the phrase as one arrow to the right and called for a boycott, echoing Donald Trump supporters’ actions against Bud Light, Keurig machines, Kellogg’s cereals and even Beyoncé. One of the former president’s sonsEduardo Bolsonaro – whose mandate was recently revoked after abandoning his post as a member of parliament and moving to the United States to pressure Trump to retaliate against Brazil over his father’s trial – has recorded a video of him throwing a pair of Havaianas into a trash can.

“I thought this was a national symbol,” he said, pointing to the small Brazilian flag that is a hallmark of the sandals. “But I was wrong. They chose someone who is openly left-wing as the spokesperson for the sandals.” Neither Torres nor the brand have commented publicly on the controversy.

“I will tell the marketing people (at Havaianas) to take advice from the Budweiser marketing department here in the United States, which has lost touch with reality and suffered a billion-dollar loss,” the former congressman said, referring to the backlash Bud Light faced after a commercial featuring transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, before later being “pardoned” by Trump.

The reaction from the country’s left was not long in coming: from sincere appeals inviting Bolsonaro’s supporters to donate their flip flops, to derision, with proposals to exchange them for an electronic bracelet in the national colors of Brazil. The device has become a running joke ever since Bolsonaro was surprised while trying to destroy your electronic bracelet with a welder, which led to his transfer from house arrest to a cell, where he began serving his sentence after being convicted of orchestrating a plan to overturn the result of the 2022 election.

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