The Rise of Brand Activism

As of March 2021, we’ve seen a 150% rise in hate crimes targeting Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in major American cities. What we’re seeing today is a result of xenophobic rhetoric set in place by the Trump administration in an attempt to divert attention away from its failures to protect Americans and recover from the economical toll of the pandemic. Language that coins the novel COVID-19 virus as “The China Virus” and “The Wuhan Flu” has incited violence against not only the Asian and Pacific Islander community, but often targets defenseless seniors.

Nike’s “Believe in Something” Campaign

Last year we witnessed a swarm of brands and multimedia conglomerates create entire marketing campaigns in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a number of other victims of police brutality. This movement was set in motion by the success of Nike’s Colin Kaepernick “Believe in Something” campaign in 2018. While other brands (*coughing* Pepsi) have tried and failed miserably to make a statement about racism, the Kaepernick campaign is still hailed as the first successful politically charged campaign in sports history in the ad world. Notice that the words “Black Lives Matter” and “Racism” are never used in the campaign, simply endorsing Kaepernick, who has become a symbol for fighting systemic racism, was a huge political risk in 2018.

In order to define what branded marketing is, we have to understand how marketing rollouts work. By June of 2020 our world had been inverted and economically crushed by COVID-19, The BLM movement had re-ignited and protesters filled the streets to let the government know that silence and complacency was no longer an option. In this perfect storm the term “branded activism” became the most important word in Zoom calls all over the world. Remember when there used to be 4 seasons in a year? Those were the days. Today there are anywhere from 8-12 marketing seasons in a year for brands to keep up with. So imagine a brand that’s already marketing Christmas, Halloween, Fall, Summer, and then cultural gatherings create more seasons on top of that. For example Coachella created a “Festival Season” and Comic Con International created “Con Season.” Even designated months like Asian Pacific American Heritage month, Black History month and LGBTQ+ Pride month are ear-marked as marketing seasons. These campaigns typically take up to a year to plan, and three months to produce copy, photo, and video assets for. So as you can imagine, when America was caught in a storm of revolution, no one exactly had assets ready to go in June of 2020.

Consumers, celebrities, influencers, and citizens all suddenly demanded more from the companies they give money to. The only thing brands could do was develop quick copy, text, and gimmicks (the infamous black square) to stay visible to their audiences. It’s important to acknowledge that there are indeed real human beings, some of them Asian Americans, who work for brands, agencies, and PR firms who are ushering these issues into the light. However, we should all remain hyper-aware that what we see on our social media feed may not be humanitarian outreach, so much as a desperate desire to stay relevant and top-of-mind to consumers. In a year where many of us had lost jobs and were unable to purchase necessities (let alone that new Nike drop) brands had to find a way to remind us that they existed.

As of March of 2021 we’re seeing an echo of the support brands showed on social media in 2020, only this time touting the hashtag #StopAsianHate. Although hate crimes against Asian and Pacific Islanders began in 2020 during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, brands like NBC, Tommy Hilfiger, Converse and Nike began the recent wave of social media posts in February of 2021. As the community who falls victim to this particular wave of hate crimes, we have every right to feel seen, feel supported and feel recognized in our struggles. However it’s also important to look at the larger picture and to reaffirm that it’s ok to be critical to the media we’re fed, and that we have every right to question the motivation behind branded activism.

[…] we have every right to feel seen, feel supported and feel recognized in our struggles.

There are particularly complex relationships for brands that publicly show Asian and Pacific Islander Americans compassion when it is not present in the DNA of the brand. Making bold statements about supporting the Asian American community opens the door to questioning ethical labor practices, beauty standards, and political alliances to what some may consider oppressive governments. We’re currently seeing #StopAsianHate posts from brands with factions that refuse to cast Filipino models because they are considered “down market” for having deeper skin tones. It also wouldn’t be difficult to dig up the fashion and technology brands who practice unethical labor practices in the manufacturing of their products in Asia.

Brands thrive off of the idea that you as a consumer will see them as a human being, a friendly face, and a person you can trust. The truth is, maybe a brand is like a friend; a friend who only comes around when you’re fully employed with disposable income to ask you for some cold hard cash.

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Written by: Rhi Bergado

Rhi Bergado is a director and filmmaker based in Long Beach CA.

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