What if his market research found that his viewers have a positive association with gay marriage and with restaurant workers and they could increase ratings by x-percent by making a public statement on these issues?

For example the Nike corporation. Some groups have heaped praise on them for supporting Kaepernick and related social justice protests. But was it altruism? Of course not. Their market research simply showed that their customers tended to feel passionately about that issue. So they did the math and calculated that the revenue they’d lose by taking a public position was more than made up for with what they’d lose, and better than if they’d remain neutral too - as their founder said “It doesn’t matter how many people hate your brand as long as enough people love it.”. Consider too that Nike now sells a majority of their product overseas to a very American-skeptic market.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/when-i...