The latest episodes in the online culture wars saw the Co-op squaring up to the Spectator, and Superdrug squaring up to women. First, to the Co-op: an anonymous twitter account named Lisa, with a butterfly for a profile pic and fewer than 300 followers, suggested the company shouldn’t be advertising in the Spectator because it ‘funds transphobia.’ This is, of course, palpable nonsense, yet two days later, the Co-op Twitter account agreed, telling Lisa it wouldn’t be advertising in the Speccie again. Cue Spectator Chairman Andrew Neil – quite rightly in my view – upping the ante by saying the Co-op was banned in perpetuity from advertising with them, tweeting: “We will not have companies like yours use their financial might to try to influence our editorial content, which is entirely a matter for the editor.”
As for Superdrug, well in an attempt to ‘champion inclusivity and diversity,’ their new brand of organic sanitary towels proudly promotes the product as being for ‘people who menstruate.’ The company justifies erasing ‘women’ from the packet on the grounds it is ‘committed to ensuring all of our employees, communities and customers feel seen and included’. Unless you’re a natural born woman most likely to need these products, in which case Superdrug don’t seem to care. Superdrug noycotts are on the way.
This kind of culture war seems to suck a new brand in every day and it’s time companies stopped being so gullible. This tendency for brands to force-feed us side-dishes of ‘correct thinking’ or the latest politically-correct Twitter hashtag alongside our purchases nearly always ends as a spectacular act of self-sabotage. Support one side of the latest hot-button argument, and you automatically alienate fifty percent of people on the other side. That cannot be good for business.
In June, a YouGov poll found a majority of British people in every age group believe brands should not take a side on political issues proving that most of us just want to buy stuff, we don’t need that stuff to remind us every five minutes that racism is a bad thing, for example. We already know. Neither do we want shopping to be the political minefield it now is. Has this brand of tea praised Black Lives Matter? Has this ice cream manufacturer spoken up in favour of migrants attempting to cross the channel in a dinghy? Does this cosmetic company believe trans women are women? What about this high street chain – does it advertise in the right newspapers? Increasingly, the answers to these questions are informing consumer choice. They are certainly informing mine.
A while back, I boycotted Lush when they launched an anti-police advertising campaign. I stopped shopping at Paperchase after their founder admitted he was on a mission to control the media and gave a grovelling apology for giving away wrapping paper in Britain’s most widely read newspaper, The Daily Mail. In the past few months I’ve switched search engines to DuckDuckGo after Google UK encouraged their social media followers to write to Liz Truss, the Minister for Women and Equalities, demanding that she ‘stop rolling back trans rights’ (she isn’t). I sold my shares in Capita when I heard the CEO had emailed all his employees to more or less tell them the company wasn’t anti-racist enough and they should all back the Black Lives Matter movement (Capita shares are well in the doldrums now). PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea are no longer on my shopping list because they told people who didn’t support the actual Black Lives Matter organisation not to buy their tea. Seeing as how I am of the opinion that #BLM is a dangerous, anti-Semitic, communist, black supremacist movement that has extremely violent tendencies and wants to defund the police, I was happy to oblige. Ditto my one-time favourite local independent department store, Elys in Wimbledon, which for some inexplicable reason saw fit to get in on this same act. As I’ve never liked Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, boycotting them after they directed a stream of pro-illegal migrant tweets at Home Secretary Priti Patel was no hardship. Now, as a proud Spectator subscriber, should I close my Co-op bank account and stop shopping in their stores, and, as a women, end my love-affair with Superdrug until they see sense? It’s on the cards.
You might not agree with me on any of these issues, but that is not the point. Nobody ever always agrees with everybody, and that’s what makes jumping onto the latest bandwagon so dangerous. Business is difficult enough without being boycotted for needlessly sharing un-asked for opinions. There’s also the risk that any past sins will be resurrected, as Ben & Jerry discovered in the wake of their anti-Home Secretary tweets. From paying farmers less for milk than it costs to produce; to treating migrant workers badly; to its tax avoidance schemes; to finding traces of weed killer in their ice cream: all this and more was regurgitated en masse. Sales apparently plummeted.
Unless your business or organisation has made a name for itself campaigning on a particular issue (I’m thinking the Body Shop taking an early stand against animal testing and launching the brand on that basis), my strong advice is to avoid the online culture wars at all cost. This is how: –
- Keep brand accounts and your main brand feed for brand news and corporate announcements only. Nothing else
- Reply only to serious queries about issues relating directly to your brand
- Insist your social media team avoids controversy and contentious issues at all costs. Make it clear personal political or activist opinions should not be expressed on a company account.
- If in doubt, don’t. If you are ever feel even slightly uneasy about a post or response, either get a second opinion – ideally from a senior colleague – before making it public, or just drop it
- Do not get into the ring with agitators, and especially not anonymous twitter accounts with barely any followers, especially if they are demanding you explain yourself. Ignore them.
- Be very wary of praising or supporting the latest social media trends, even one that seems to have popular support. You may not have the whole story. Several organisations and prominent individuals had to backtrack when the full aims of Black Lives Matter were exposed, for example.
- Remember: if you say something when you don’t need to, people will notice, and perhaps not in a good way. Say nothing when you don’t need to say anything, and the chances are no one will care.
- Never intimidate or directly challenge any individual online. When the Body Shop tweeted its disgust at JK Rowling, after she queried their use of the phrase ‘people who menstruate,’ it looked like bullying, and bullying women – or indeed anyone – online is not a good look
- If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it on social media
- Do not believe the adage ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ There is and it can destroy businesses.
Finally, remember that Twitter in particular is a great place for fuelling bile and bitterness. Sensible brands spread light and laughter and promote their lovely products and services. Not joining the culture wars doesn’t make you boring. It keeps you and your brand’s reputation safe.
UPDATE: The Co-op has done a swift reverse-ferret, deleting the offending tweet, saying it supports editorial freedom and that the tweet originally posted does not reflect their advertising policy.
YouGov poll: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/surveyresults/daily/2020/06/10/6b706/2