Corporate Brand Activism: Authentic or Fake?

Credit: Giuseppe Caltabiano, Marketing Across Borders

On May 25, 2020, teen bystander Darnella Frazier recorded a cellphone video of Minneapolis police officers murdering Black resident George Floyd and posted it on Facebook and Instagram. Frazier’s video received millions of views, comments and reshares from social media users around the world. Many of the video viewers expressed that systemic anti-Black racism was the reason Floyd experienced police brutality, which led to his death. Consequently, the murder of Floyd globalized the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

People from more than 40 countries, representing every continent except Antarctica, took to the streets to protest the police brutality and other forms of systemic racism that Black people experience. Street protesters often recorded the protests they attended and uploaded them to social media platforms to encourage more people to support the social movement. As a result, Twitter users viewed protest videos of #BlackLivesMatter supporters over 1.4 billion times on the microblogging site in the first 12 days following Floyd’s death. Furthermore,

data from Pew Research Center shows that social media users from around the world tweeted or retweeted their support for the social movement by using its hashtag roughly 47.8 million times alone during the three months after Floyd’s death.

Corporate brands were among the supporters that harnessed digital platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and their websites to condemn the murder of Floyd and encourage the public, especially their target audiences, to advocate for racial justice. Some corporate brands went beyond what some communication researchers call slacktivism by advocating for racial justice for Black people offline.

For instance, the children’s toy company Lego donated $4 million to organizations that are dedicated to supporting Black children and educating all children about the importance of racial equality. Starbucks’ Black Partner Network and Black leaders co-designed T-shirts with common #BlackLivesMatter protest slogans that were distributed to the company’s store partners. The Starbucks Foundation also raised $1 million through its Neighborhood Grants program to promote racial equity in local communities. Meanwhile, Nike joined footwear brands in the commitment to invest a combined $140 million over 10 years in organizations that focus on economic empowerment, education and social justice for Black people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sSOju2B8g

"How Are Companies Making Black Lives Matter?" by Reuters

Some corporate companies, however, advocated for #BlackLivesMatter on and offline years before the death of Floyd. Ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is a prime example. The company first supported the social movement on its Facebook page in 2016. This resulted in backlash from #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter advocates. Backlash, however, did not stop the company from supporting #BlackLivesMatter. In 2019, Ben & Jerry’s created the ice cream flavor and project Justice ReMix’d to continue raising awareness about the importance of racial justice for black people. For the project, the company partnered with The Advancement Project National Office, a multi-racial civil rights organization, to inform consumers about systemic anti-Black racism and the need for criminal justice reform.

Ben & Jerry’s support for #BlackLivesMatter before the movement became global resulted in its consumers not being surprised that the company partnered with Black NFL quarterback and civil rights activists Colin Kaepernick, in 2020, for its Change the Whirled ice cream flavor and campaign. Unlike some corporations, social and political advocacy is a core part of Ben & Jerry’s brand identity. Thus, when the company advocates for social movements online and uses its products to amplify marginalized voices, consumers perceive the brand’s activism as authentic.

Corporate consumers, however, question the authenticity of businesses that occasionally participate in activism on and offline. Consumers are hesitant to believe that these brands genuinely care about social movements because activism is not a defining feature of their brand identity. Thus, these corporate brands do not address issues such as systemic anti-Black racism when it’s not trending on social media platforms and in the news. Critics who deem some corporations’ activism as performative argue that these businesses only participate in social movements to cultivate a good brand reputation and gain profit.

As a public relations practitioner, I can confirm that some brands genuinely care about social and political advocacy because they value their leaders, employees and consumers from marginalized communities. Corporations, however, that do have marginalized people in leadership positions or on staff arguably demonstrate inauthentic brand activism. Thus, it is essential that hiring managers put more people from oppressed groups in leadership and other positions at corporations to increase consistent and authentic brand activism on and offline. This necessary shift can accelerate the advocacy work of activists who are trying to create a more equitable society for marginalized groups.