At this point, a broad consensus is forming among the public in support of criminal justice reform and in opposition to police brutality. Crucial policy reforms, from Democrats and Republicans alike, are making inroads in Congress.
But one of the most annoying trends emerging during the current moment is that of corporations and brands pushing surface-level and cringey #BlackLivesMatter messages. The intentions aren’t as altruistic as boardroom executives would like you to believe, and if anything, their rhetoric is more divisive than helpful.
Consider the examples offered by Netflix and HBO.
On social media, HBO changed the name of its Twitter account to #BlackLivesMatter and shared a quote from James Baldwin: “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.” But HBO didn’t actually take any serious action to support reform or donate a dime to legitimate pro-reform causes. Instead, it just put out some pandering tweets and removed a classic film from its streaming services, Gone with the Wind, that’s no longer considered woke enough. Evidently, the company thinks people are too stupid to think critically about the movie’s questionable racial message for themselves.
Meanwhile, Netflix tweeted that “to be silent is to be complicit…Black lives matter.” Here, the corporation is seemingly shaming anyone who doesn’t send out woke tweets as “complicit,” but it hasn’t actually donated a dime to support reform. (The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, did donate $1 million in his personal capacity to a police reform group. He is worth $5.24 billion.)
Nike has long faced criticism for poor labor conditions in its factories based in developing countries. Still, the company responded to the current moment by posting an emotional video on Instagram, calling on people to “be the change” and “stop turning their backs” on the issue of racial inequity.
Not to be out-woked, rival company Adidas retweeted Nike and said, “Together is how we make change.” Note that the company is saying that all it takes to pursue change is sharing a feel-good video that makes no mention of any actual reforms and simply guilt trips the audience.
Truly stunning and brave.
These are some of the biggest examples, but hundreds of brands, far too many to list in one article, have joined the pandering parade of loudly enlightened corporate voices.
In turn, many people are annoyed that they can’t even take a break from the toxicity and chaos of the political moment to watch Netflix or shop for shoes without brands thrusting their woke messaging at them. It’s often coming from companies who aren’t actually doing very much to help the issue.
Consumers are encountering a never-ending parade of virtue-signaling from companies that literally have no involvement with criminal justice or politics at all. Did we really need to hear that #BlackLivesMatter from the candy company Gushers? It’s not hard to imagine a world where companies don’t engage in issues of the day outside of their actual industry.
Gushers wouldn’t be Gushers without the Black community and your voices. We’re working with @fruitbythefoot on creating space to amplify that. We see you. We stand with you. pic.twitter.com/7y1DgUYitN
— Gushers (@gushers) June 6, 2020
Frankly, much of this seems like companies cynically attempting to cash in and build consumer loyalty to their brand by going with the consensus movement of the day, not some authentic stand for justice and equality.
University of Pennsylvania marketing professor Americus Reed explained to the New York Times that what we’re witnessing is “values and identity-driven targeted marketing,” where “[companies are] taking a stand, hopefully, because it’s moral but also because they understand the long-term economic game.”
Of course, fiscally speaking, this is what companies should do. It’s their responsibility to do what it takes to make a profit for their shareholders. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying from the consumer’s point of view.
Corporate virtue-signaling, especially when it includes little substantive action, could be doing the criminal justice reform movement more harm than good. Think about it: Is anyone really going to change their mind on police reform because they saw a tweet from Gushers or Netflix?
More likely, the ongoing parade of woke corporate messaging will just alienate more people. Average people have busy lives. When bombarded with substance-free virtue-signaling at every turn, many people will eventually tune out the broader, important criminal justice conversation — and, frankly, it’s hard to blame them.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a freelance journalist and a former fellow at the Washington Examiner.
