Note: This story has been updated with a statement from Safeway’s general counsel.
The general counsel of Safeway Inc., a Fortune 100 company, tried to make like Jay Leno and tell a joke at the supermarket chains annual meeting Tuesday. But some folks werent amused.
Robert Gordon, GC and chief governance officer, cracked a joke about the two most powerful women in Washington, D.C.Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. And now hes being branded a sexist.
Gordon, 59, has been Safeways GC since 2000. The company operates 1,675 stores in the U.S. and western Canada and had annual sales of $43.6 billion in 2011.
So much for the facts; now the joke:
You know, this is the season when companies and other institutions are interested in enhancing their reputation and their image for the general public, and one of the institutions that’s doing this is the Secret Service, particularly after the calamity in Colombia. And among the instructions given to the Secret Service agents was to try to agree with the president more and support his decisions. And that led to this exchange that took place last week, when the president flew into the White House lawn and an agent greeted him at the helicopter.
The president was carrying two pigs under his arms and the Secret Service agents said, “Nice pigs, sir.”
And the president said, “These are not ordinary pigs, these are genuine Arkansas razorback hogs. I got one for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and one for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
And the Secret Service agent said, “Excellent trade, sir.”
