The boycott launched by right-wing Havaianas politicians had no impact on stores in the capital São Paulo. Managers of five stores in the capital of São Paulo visited by Leaf said there was no change in customer movement.
The establishments were full because of Christmas, and in two of them there was a queue extending out the door. The service was normal and there were no demonstrations or protests. The company also did not provide information about it to employees, according to the report.
Photos from Agence France Presse also show queues in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
The reason for the social media protest is a corporate campaign, featuring Fernanda Torres, in which the actress states that she does not want the public to start 2026 “on the right foot”, but “on both feet”.
Of the ten customers surveyed by the report, five said they hadn’t even seen the ad. Of those who saw it, three said it didn’t bother them. Two of them criticized the company, but one of them bought a pair of shoes anyway.
Retiree Giácomo Bianchini, 72, who describes himself as a “self-proclaimed Bolsonarista”, said he did not like the ad article. “I bought this slipper under pressure from my wife.”
It was a gift for the couple’s son. “I tried to find Ipanema sandals, but I couldn’t find them,” Bianchini said.
Politicians like former federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) and federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), who associated the content of the advertisement with an alleged ideological position of the brand.
The repercussions went beyond social networks and reached the financial market. Alpargatas, owner of Havaianas, recorded a sharp decline during the B3 trading session this Monday (22), amid the controversy surrounding the advertising campaign.
The Calçados Guarani store, in Brusque (SC), exhausted its stock of the brand’s flip-flops in less than half an hour after putting pairs on sale for R$1, as part of a boycott movement led by right-wing supporters on social networks.
Businessman João Soares, 64, considers this protest to be justified. “I’m not going to buy this brand and I’m going to stop using what I have at home. I think it was unnecessary advertising and I don’t agree with it.”
Also retired, Zuleica Maranhão, 69, said she “thinks it all makes no sense.” “Everyone talks about entering with the right foot or entering with both feet. It’s something natural. It happens because of the polarization we’re experiencing, I’ve never seen that happen, even under the dictatorship.”
“At that time, I saw friends who were in favor of the dictatorship welcoming people who were against the dictatorship. You have to separate things. The product is the product, the policy is the policy. I came here today and bought a bunch of slippers to give as gifts to my grandchildren and my husband,” she added.
Businessman Matheus Hermínio, 34, said he would like the ad to be an explicit jab, as long as it was right-wing. “Whether advertising is annoying depends on which side of the business it is,” he said.
In general, customers say that product quality is a priority, above the impact of company advertising.
For Diego Silva, 36, a bank employee, the advertising was very subtle. “I came here to buy slippers for my one-and-a-half-year-old son, and this is the most important thing for me,” Silva said.
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