5 Cults Behind Famous Companies
If you’ve seen the videos of hordes of people waiting outside a Target at 5 a.m. to make sure they get a limited-edition Stanley cup, you can see how brands can be considered cults. Some of them go even further, however: actually being owned and/or run by actual cults.
Brands like…
Celestial Seasonings
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1969 was a big year for Mo Siegel: He founded Celestial Seasonings, now the biggest tea manufacturer in America, and discovered The Urantia Book, a religious text supposedly written by racist aliens arguing for eugenics. Siegel went on to become president of the Urantia Foundation, whose mission is spreading the gross word. That’s right: The Sleepytime Bear has been milkshake ducked.
The Washington Times
Ever heard of the Moonies? Weird Christian church founded in Korea by Sun Myung Moon, who claimed to be the second coming of Christ, that holds those dystopian-looking mass weddings? They own the American conservative newspaper The Washington Times. That might not seem that weird, as Christianity is fundamental to the American conservative movement, but one look through the “Allegations of Racism” section of the newspaper’s Wikipedia page tells you how they might feel about a Korean Jesus.
Oneida
If your grandma has fancy, intricately engraved silverware, it was probably from Oneida, a company founded by a communist, polyamorous, religious sex cult called the Oneida Community in the 19th century. If none of those words seem compatible with each other, or indeed with owning a wildly successful silverware company, that’s probably why it only lasted 30 years, which is still pretty impressive in cult years.
The Yellow Deli
The Yellow Deli, which has locations all over the U.S. and Canada, seems like an unassuming if hippie-ish sandwich shop, but it’s run by and wholly staffed by members of the Twelve Tribes, a “new religious movement” that’s faced allegations of anti-Semitism, child labor and slavery. It’s too bad, too. Those sandwiches look baller.
HydraPak
You’ve probably never heard of HydraPak, but you’ve probably heard of Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and convicted child rapist. The company was started by Rulon Jeffs, Warren’s father and the FLDS’s previous “prophet.” It was also the company that manufactured the O-rings whose failure led to the Challenger disaster in 1986.
It amazingly still exists, having been renamed NewEra Manufacturing, possibly having disassociated with the FLDS but still doing business in the aerospace industry. Most companies couldn’t survive a deadly rocket explosion or a Mormon sex cult, let alone both, so those must be some good-ass machine parts.