Wisconsin Spice Company Throws $100K At Trump Impeachment Ads

MILWAUKEE, WI — When it comes to throwing advertising dollars at Donald Trump impeachment-related advertising on Facebook, data shows Trump is the biggest spender. The second-biggest spender? That would be Penzey's Spice Company in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Say what?

Penzey's Spices has spent more than $100,000 on a Facebook advertising campaign in a little more than a week calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The company spent spent nearly $2.4 million on similar political ads in the last 1-1/2 years.

According to a Wisconsin Public Radio report, Penzey's CEO Bill Penzey, an outspoken critic of Trump, said his anti-Trump post has more than 250,000 likes and 43,000 shares on Facebook.

"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. For the world’s greatest military power to embrace nationalism is scary-dangerous," Penzey wrote in the ad. "I’ve always seen our mission as promoting and protecting the kindness found at the heart of cooking. 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."

When it comes to spending money on Facebook on impeachment-related ad buys, where does that put Penzey's on the country's biggest spenders?

According to Axios, pretty high. Penzey's comes in second only to Trump, who is credited with spending $718,000 between Sept. 29 and Saturday. According to Facebook advertising data, Penzey's spent a total of $118,933 on such ads between Oct. 2 and Tuesday.

Penzey's ranks ahead of billionaire liberal activist and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, who's spent $86,000, the National Republican Senatorial Committee at $46,000, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell at $40,000 and presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren at $20,000.

Penzy's Has Done It Before

In July 2017, Penzey's gave away free Mexican Vanilla Extract in honor of Trump's dubious comments about Mexican immigration and his desire to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

CEO Penzey reported seeing more orders placed in 17 days than he did across the previous year. A 1,600 percent jump in sales caused such a stir, the company had to replenish its inventory levels just to keep up with the demand.

The company made the ad after Trump likened Hispanic migrants entering into the U.S. as a "tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border."

"That form of intentional racism designed to stoke fear and anger among voters should have raised huge red flags as to why this was not a candidate fit for the highest office in the land. For reasons we have yet to get to the bottom of, those red flags were never raised, and for that we are sorry," Penzey wrote on his company's Facebook at the time.

Penzey's politically-themed campaigns have drawn the support of those who don't like Trump and ire among his supporters, who have called for a boycott of the spice company.

Troubling Trump From The Jump

Just after Trump was elected in November 2016, Penzey took aim at the new commander in chief online.

"The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades," Penzey wrote to company email subscribers in November. "The American people are taking notice."

His campaign "Cooking Trumps Racism" followed, offering a sizable deal on some of the company's spice boxes, just in time for Thanksgiving.