A Corporate Guide To Digital Activism

Is the corporate world invading digital spaces with faux woke-ness and disingenuous activism?

Cyberspace has undoubtedly become a powerful political tool in the last decade. As human rights have unfortunately become a part of political polarisation, social media platforms are a constant battleground of ideologies. Caught in this phenomenon, here comes corporates, testing waters and dipping their toes into socio-political conversations. It is simultaneously amusing and somewhat disturbing to see brands utilize and, to an extent, infiltrate digital spaces to communicate with millennials and Gen Z, taking advantage of the popularity of new-gen activism.

Twitter is a platform that has proven to be a very effective instrument in building rapport between brands and their consumers. It has been successful in creating an illusion of how brands are quirky and relatable to the average users. The platform is also a space for grievance redressal and provides brands with opportunities for targeted and personalized ads. The advent of digital advertisement has significantly shifted businesses into cyberspaces and social media engagement has become one of the cornerstone criteria for a brand’s success. They use memes and pop-culture references to be trendy and to attract more interactions and followers by engaging them in silly and absurdly comedic conversations to go viral.

The summer of 2020 saw a worldwide wave of outrage and protest against universal racism and police brutality. People across the world stood in solidarity with the victims of racism in the US and adopted the movements in their own countries to fight against local injustices against minorities and indigenous people. Major brands took this opportunity to share messages of support for the movement and denounced racism through tweets and other social media posts. Ben and Jerry’s was notably appreciated for their solid stand and support towards racial equality.

They were commended for not just using social causes to further their marketing agendas but also consistently supporting causes like marriage equality and climate activism. At the same time, they have been criticized for continuing to sell their products on Israeli settlements, where Palestinian citizens are forbidden to access it. This has created a huge outrage against the company, prompting people to call their activism performative and pointing out their double standards in dealing with social causes. Oreo recently came out with a tweet to show support towards the transgender community in the wake of the introduction of anti-trans legislation in various states in the US.

While we see a lot of such brands taking a definitive stance against apparent injustice, one cannot help but think if their “woke-ness” is genuine or simply just a marketing tactic carefully curated to attract more progressive consumer interactions. Digital spaces are known to be the kingdom of young people and brands know better than to stay quiet during political and social turmoil. One incident of failed socially liberating marketing tactic was when Burger King tweeted “women belong in the kitchen” and then followed up by tweets promoting scholarships for women venturing into the culinary field to curb sexism. But the tweet backfired due to their usage of a common misogynistic trope which they used for shock value and in turn, made the space unsafe for women by attracting sexist and abusive trolls.

New-age digital activism is an amazing way for people to initiate socio-political conversations and promote the overall welfare and wellness of the people but what good does a couple of tweets do when corporates actively participate in the exploitation of minority labor and appropriation of their culture?

Written By - Clare Ann Biju