Major brands such as Target, Bud Light and Disney are reeling from failed experiments in blending social activism with marketing. The consumer backlash against commerce with political undertones would make Adam Smith proud, says Lee Cohen in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt:
Recent consumer backlashes against retailers injecting social activism into their product marketing has given credence to the notion of ‘go woke, go broke’. The phrase provides hope that we are reaching an inflection point where ordinary Americans have had enough of corporate virtue signalling. In times when businesses feel compelled to reflect political messaging in their commercial campaigns, corporate social justice has become the rage.
Most of us simply want to make purchases without being lectured about issues having nothing to do with the transaction at hand. Fortunately, just as silent majorities make known their will at the ballot box, consumers still have power to buy elsewhere.
Recently-released reports reveal that the second quarter of this year marked a significant downturn for U.S. retail titan Target, as the company experienced a 5% drop in sales, its first decline in six years. …
The company’s response was to remove certain products from its extensive Pride collection, supposedly due to concerns about staff safety through confrontations between customers and employees and damage to displays. Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO, acknowledged a clear connection between the controversy and the sales decline, conceding that, “…we’re applying what we’ve learned to ensure we’re staying close to our guests and their expectations of Target”.
The incident is hardly isolated. Bud Light, one of America’s leading beer brands, faced a similar decline in sales after an eye-roll-worthy social media campaign. Its collaboration with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney first sparked the backlash, contributing to a substantial drop in revenues for parent company Anheuser-Busch.
Entertainment giant Disney is also experiencing scathing criticism for injecting a socio-political agenda into its products, polarising fans and would-be patrons of its parks. Disney has made deliberate choices to recast its traditional characters through live-action remakes, with the latest example being the reboot of the classic movie Snow White. The princess had been refashioned as a Latina, while the beloved dwarves were portrayed as a hodgepodge of genders, races and sizes, purportedly to avoid any stereotypes.
Such moves earned a lashing in a Wall Street Journal editorial, which noted Disney has “elevated progressive pieties over originality and tradition, which may be alienating its customer base”. Indeed, in its latest quarter, Disney has lost $659 million across its streaming platforms.
Collectively, these incidents highlight a broader sentiment within American society: a growing revulsion towards the intertwining of politics and commerce leading to consumer boycotts.
Worth reading in full.
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