Brands Wear ‘Purpose’ Like a Trendy Outfit
In a post post-pandemic and social uprising society, brands are re-evaluating hasty alignments with causes for causes sake. There is no question that the years leading up to and following the pandemic were tumultuous to say the least. As a society, we are still experiencing the repercussions of several impactful movements including Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March, and the Me Too movement to name a few. In the midst of our social awakening, many companies were forced to choose sides as a show of solidarity with the masses. Many brands, mostly those with a history of at least some social activism, were successful in their alignments with a “cause”. Brands like Ben & Jerry’s were applauded for their billboard sized exclamations of support for Colin Kaepernick. While Nike experienced considerable pushback before receiving praise for their creative social stance.
Others (ahem, Pepsi!!!), struggled miserably to communicate a genuine position and will go down in history as being on the wrong side of…well, everything. Brands that sailed through preceding decades of little to no social justice questioning found the quickly changing mindsets of customers challenging. Many companies hastily aligned themselves with causes and organizations with no common purpose or shared values. Men’s razor companies supported women’s rights while financial institutions backed inner-city, minority sports. While the deluge of extra money into the non-profit world was appreciated, it watered down the purpose driven marketing of many mix-matched cause related campaigns. In Ad Age’s recent article, “Why Brands Need to Stop “Purpose” Pandering”, the author points out how many companies are guilty of confusing politics with purpose in their attempts to acquire “social currency”. This race for social (justice) status was evidenced by the unprecedented 4.2% increase ($450 Billion) in corporate donations in 2019 as reported by the U.S. Treasury Department. Since then, companies have slowed their charitable giving a bit and are taking a more strategic look at who they support.
Looking forward, I truly hope that brands take a little more time to “read the room” and find organizations to support or collaborate with that share in their overall values.
