(relatively low stakes, as in like not 9/11 or JFK level)
Mine: plastic straw (and now plastic cutlery) ban initiatives are directly funded by petrochemical companies. Plastic straws are one of the most common and useful types of disposable plastic an average American encounters every day, so banning them causes people a huge inconvenience and tarnishes the idea of other green initiatives (that might have actual teeth) as more nanny state "not allowed to have this"-ery (also has the side effect of making gullible libs think they're actually doing something to help the planet by using a reusable straw while they get their plastic container of meat products)
But it's not a theory when like, they openly talk about it because the manipulative design is itself a sort of commodity-capital to be sold as a service to stores or used as PR to make their gormless shareholders nod dully and decide that the store is indeed doing enough to extract wealth to feed to them.