The Culture Wars: When brand culture collides with cancel culture

The idea of a brand getting cancelled by the crowd is as terrifying as it is real. No brand can claim to be cancel-proof. Those days are behind us when a business had to have an inferior or harmful product or service for it to be boycotted or booted. Today, all it takes is a perceived or even an imagined slight by a brand, and the crowd goes into a frenzy. It doesn’t matter if the company in the eye of the storm is a purpose-driven global behemoth like Tata, which had to eat the humble pie when its Tanishq campaign centred around communal harmony backfired. Nuance is the first casualty of a cancel mob. So, how does a brand navigate this conundrum?

Young consumers make up the bulk of the Indian market, with over 65% of them below the age of 35. Obviously, brands want to reach out to this young consumer base, have a deeper connection with them, and sell to them. This is also a very vocal generation of digital natives who won’t think twice before calling out a brand over a range of issues that deserve merit and even those that do not. When brands decide to reach out to this generation, they need to be extremely careful about what they say and how they say it.

Cancel culture in India

Broadly, the cancel culture is the act of publicly rejecting something or someone for their views or actions that are considered unacceptable. It might be a more recent phenomenon in the West, but it is not new to India. While these days, cancelling something is considered negative, we Indians actually used it to our advantage! The Swadeshi movement, when large swathes of Indians decided to boycott British goods for Indian goods, was a perfect example of cancel culture. What began in India as a positive movement has taken a turn for the worse with the rise of social media platforms. Today, rather than empowering the voiceless, cancel culture has become a sort of cattle prod that mostly works to keep brands in check by riling up the fringe. Does that mean that brands can no longer have a new and unique opinion in India? While Tata pulling the Tanishq ad did seem like the company was giving in to trolls, they did not lose substantial money at all. If there was any financial loss, it was temporary and short-term, which was offset by the increased recognition and support they gained from the general public.

Navigating cancel culture 

Before a company or brand chooses to launch a campaign that is purpose-driven, edgy, or takes on unpopular opinions, they need to be sure of a few things. Firstly, they need to look very closely at their overall demographic and see whether the new messaging will fit with their existing consumers. Take the case of Anheuser-Busch, the American brewing company that decided to use a transgender influencer to market its Bud Light beer. The company believed that in order to attract younger consumers, it needed to present ‘woke’ messaging. It turned out that instead of attracting new consumers, it should have made sure that its existing customer base would be on the same page. Sadly, they weren't, and the company’s organic revenue nosedived by $1.4 billion since they ran the campaign in March last year. This happened largely because the brand launched the campaign around gender, a topic that remains at the very forefront of the culture war in America. What Anheuser-Busch intended to do was win new, ‘woke’ customers. What it ended up doing was clashing head-on with the might of the American conservatives and riling them up, that too in peak sports season.

In stark contrast, the American ice cream chain Ben & Jerry’s stood up for the Black Lives Matter movement. That was also a cause that was associated with being woke and would irk the conservatives. However, Ben & Jerry’s has a history of purpose-driven branding. Standing up, or rather taking a knee for Black Lives Matter was not something drastically different for them. In the past, they have supported climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. So, when a section of the conservative audience did call them out, they stood by their messaging like they had done so several times in the past—something that Bud Light or Anheuser-Busch have never done. In today's world, companies can get into trouble if their actions don't match the values they talk about. This brings us to the second crucial aspect to be mindful of while navigating cancel culture: the brand’s messaging aligning with a brand’s ethos.

Brand culture for the win

Brands in India have tried to stand up and take a stance, only to be defeated when their employees started getting threatened. An exception is Amul, who have stayed true to their messaging and, year after year, for decades, put out controversial ads through their Amul girl. Sure, there were times when they touched extremely touchy subjects, but a company should be aware that not all battles need to be fought. As a result, the Amul girl still stands strong and continues with her timely quips on social events.

When a brand is true to its messaging and its ethos and is keenly aware of its customers’ wants, it can withstand an assault from the cancel mob. In such cases, patronus-like, its culture can keep the cancel mob at bay and emerge unscathed. 

This article is penned by Jaideep Shergill, Co-Founder, of Pitchfork Partners.