The world is changing. Between COVID and BLM protests, it’s enough to keep any social media manager busy. We all have a good handling on how to respond to COVID, now being a few months into the pandemic.
But now the world is facing a new challenge: addressing police brutality against the black population. ‘Black Lives Matter’ has become a rallying cry around the world after the death of George Floyd. Peaceful protesters marching police brutality were quickly met by police with military grade armour and weapons, tanks,, rubber bullets and tear gas. Live broadcasts on Twitter and Instagram captured the whole affair; eyesight lost to rubber bullets, people beaten and sometimes killed in the streets, journalists arrested on television
After the protests, brand managers were working quickly to create sensitive and aesthetically pleasing responses to the protests and support BLM.
Brand’s Responses to Black Lives Matter
Today, consumers care about the values that the brands they often engage with stand for. Over the past few years, we’ve seen brands take a stance on issues that are important to their consumers. Let’s take a look at how brands responded to the movement:
Nike
One of the quickest brands to respond was Nike, a brand more practiced in pivoting their messaging for social movements. Nike is not new to pivoting their marketing message to support social movements. In 2018, Nike chose to make Kaeperknick a brand spokesperson despite him being abandoned by the NFL for kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police treatment of black people. Nike’s new video pivoted it’s “Just Do It” slogan to “For once, don’t do it.” The video pushed further to “Don’t pretend there’s not a problem in America.” While the problem between black people and the police is never mentioned directly, racism is.
Ben & Jerry’s
Unlike their ice cream, there was no sugar coating in the response to the BLM movement. The ice cream make, Ben & Jerry’s, kicked off their response with “We need to Dismantle White Supremacy.” The brand first became aligned with the BLM movement back in 2016 afterKeith Lamont Scott was shot by a Charlotte police officer. More recently, Ben & Jerry’s used its 420 campaign this past April (celebrated every year by cannabis enthusiasts on April 20th) to highlight the racial injustices linked with cannabis.
This is far from a marketing ploy by Ben & Jerry’s as they call for America to grapple with the sins of its past.
“Unless and until white America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, take responsibility for its past and the impact it has on the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in justice, the list of names that George Floyd has been added to will never end. We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation's long journey towards justice and a more perfect union.” - Ben & Jerry’s
Other Brands
Many brands followed suit over the next few days. Grindr removed its ethnicity filter to support BLM. LEGO paused all advertising spend on its police toys line and donated $4 million. Glossier donated $1M to organisations combating racial injustice.
Brands Missing the Mark
While there are plenty of brands addressing racism and police brutality with more than words, there are plenty of brands leaving consumers demanding more. Many brands are guilty of posting a black image with a statement claiming they are committed to fighting injustice in white font. It’s actually inspired a meme going around Twitter.
Some brands guilty of this so far?
Facebook weighed in and pledged to review ad policies on June 5th. Bit late to the party here. While Twitter placed a warning on May 29th on Trump’s tweets for glorifying violence after George Floyd’s death, Zuckerberg decided to leave the post up causing internal company divisions.
Despite Facebook pledging to take a harder look at its policies, there are still many concerns with how Facebook handles content moderation and hate speech. The North Face is the first major brand to pledge that it will be halting paid media spend on Facebook and Instagram for July to protest Facebook’s handling of content moderation. Other advertisers (Eddie Bauer, Magnolia Pictures, Ben & Jerry’s and more) are following suit with their Facebook Ads boycott. Zuckerberg has released an open letter on Facebook’s position regarding the matter here.
As of June 26th, Facebook released this statement on how it will work towards improving the platform's response in preparation for the 2020 election.
L’Oreal
L’Oreal posted “SPEAKING OUT IS WORTH IT.” This statement did not reconcile the brand’s past of ending a professional partnership with model Munroe Bergdorf for speaking out against racism in 2017.
So how did L’Oreal address this? By expressing regret on how Bergdorf was treated. Bergdorf released a statement saying that she had been in contact with the new president, Delphine Viguier. L’Oreal is also slated to make a €25,000 to Mermaids, a charity “supporting gender-variant and transgender youth in the UK”, and UK Black Pride.
PrettyLittleThing
PrettyLittleThing decided to use the below illustration to show their support for the movement. The issue? Users were upset for numerous reasons; the jetblack hand, the no usage of #blacklivesmatter in the post, and the zero indication that the brand was interested in doing more than posting a nice pic on the ‘gram. The illustration has since been removed and PLT tried again, but this time their post asked users to sign a petition.
Amazon
Amazon attempted to show their support for the BLM movement by tweeting the below image on May 31st.
Twitter users were quick to criticize Amazon for this post. With this post, there was no response on whether or not a company with a CEO with a net worth of nearly $150 billion was going to open its pockets. On June 3rd, Amazon finally released a statement that the company would donate $10M to organizations supporting justice and equity (ACLU, BLM and NAACP to name a few). While the donations are very much appreciated by the organizations, Amazon should have waited to post their solidarity post until they had an actual plan on how the company would help the movement.
TikTok
TikTok has faced multiple accusations of deleting black users’ accounts and claims that it has allowed the spread of racist propaganda across the app. To support the movement, TikTok shared their message on the BLM Movement.
After receiving a fair amount of backlash, TikTok released a followup statement apologizing to black creators and pledging to donate $4M to help the black community fight racial injustice. This statement was released on June 1st.
Next Steps for Brands
So the question is should your brand comment on the BLM protests?
The simple answer is: No. You shouldn’t respond to the BLM protests if your brand is only looking to offer vague words and not be part of the change.
Let me say this again for the people in the back.
Users👏🏿do👏🏾not👏🏽want👏🏽empty👏🏾words👏🏿
The template of a JPG with empty words has become the standard to responding to a crisis. From a mass shooting to systematic racism, brands turn to this template as if hoping these standard posts will be enough to pacify their audiences. But how do you sell sneakers and fast fashion jeans next to images of mass shootings, police violence and racist attacks?
Contemporary marketing theory encourages brands to show up where users are online and engage with topics their audiences care about. From commenting on random trending topics to using memes in marketing efforts, brands are constantly looking for ways to engage their audiences. The brands try to position themselves as consumers’ friends rather than as faceless companies -- in times of joy and in times of tragedy.
How did we get here?
But it has never been clearer that brands need to step up. Social media has been flooded with videos of protests, violence, and disheartening stats regarding COVID-19. Unemployment is up and people are worried about the future. Trump threatened to use military force on the citizens he swore an oath to protect. Brands have rushed to show where they stand on the BLM, but many shared vague posts at the end of May that looked similar to what we’ve seen before during times of tragedy. Public outcry for brands to do more, to ‘open their pockets’ appeared to have brands putting their money where their mouth is.
Historically, companies haven’t felt a need to share their thoughts on racism, national tragedy, etc. Commenting on these topics was considered risky and could divide your audience. Why alienate part of your audience? As social media has taken off, the conventional, apolitical approach is no longer effective. Consumers are constantly flooded with marketing messages online and have learned to tune out traditional ads or have ad blockers in place. Brands have needed to look for a new way to reach their audiences. Brands are using messaging that users want to engage with and share, because it appeals to their values.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is probably the earliest example of this. Launching in 2004, the company asked consumers to question beauty standards and to love their real selves.
While there is some debate as to how helpful this was in starting a body positivity conversation, or if it just packaged the issue into a neat, little package brands could easily use for marketing purposes, market research began to show that users under the age of 40 want brands to be more socially responsible. In the past, Brands have responded to their desire for social responsibility with vague statements highlighting their vague values of community, equality and supporting one another.
While more and more brands jump on the bandwagon to be more socially conscious, it is peer pressure for other brands to do likewise. Peer pressure to participate and concerns of alienating part of the audience is leading many brands to put out bland, empty statements that have no foundation. Brands are looking for ways to associate themselves with anti-racism movements without upsetting anyone. They want to walk right up to the line of politics without taking the plunge.
Based on a new survey conducted by Morning Consult, most consumers want brands to commit resources to help communities recover from unrest and address their internal issues with racism. Messaging expressing support on social media was the least likely method to satisfy respondents.
So as a brand what should you do?
Educate yourself and your team. Maybe your brand is new to speaking out for political movements. There are plenty of educational resources to learn more and this helpful app as well. As a consumer, I would personally prefer a brand to take the time to educate themselves on an issue and create an actual plan to help address it and be socially responsible. I can wait, just give me something meaningful.
Address internal issues. What does your internal team look like? Is your brand actively scouting to diversify your team? Only 1% of Fortune 500 Companies have African American or Black CEOs. Yet McKinsey did a study showing that racially diverse teams performed 35% compared to other companies. Diversifying your team (by race and by gender) is a win for you overall, as each person will approach your problem differently. Help the community, but don’t forget to look internally as well.
Be vocal not just in times of crisis. It’s great that you’re ready to enter the conversation now, but what happens after the protests stop? What happens when national outcry weakens and the news chooses to focus on something else? Your brand cannot just be vocal when the market demands it. Your brand’s values, its beliefs, need to be highlighted in all you do, not just in times of tragedy.
Looking for ways to support Black-owned businesses yourself? Check out Website Planet's blogpost for 181 Black-owned businesses you can support online.
For more information on why supporting BLM efforts is important, check out DNA Weekly's blogpost to learn more.
What are your thoughts on Brands speaking out on BLM? Which brands do you think are doing the best at participating in the conversation?
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