Businesses are driven by money. Humans are driven by sociality. This gap is bridged when brands pretend to be your friend. Personification, mascots and community are all avenues to extract money from customers.
Fake wokeness
Brands tailor their outward political stances to maximise profits. Companies attempt to appear woke in order to attract customers and a favorable public image. Of course, the way brands market themselves has nothing to do with their internal morals, and are instead just ploys for financial gains.
Consider BMW, who has participated in this year’s Pride month celebrations. BMW doesn’t care about what Pride month stands for, and has a literal nazi past.
Likewise, Bethesda’s social media platforms don’t hide their motives whatsoever.
Sometimes, people are able to see past fake wokeness for what it really is, baseless advertising. An example is Kendall and PepsiCo’s infamous Black Lives Matter commercial. Another example is Gillette’s #MeToo ad. The public outrage for these commercials aren’t necessarily because of the messages within them, but because of the blatant attempt at using political issues for commercial gains.
Furthermore, we are in the midst of a fake body positivity movement. When brands make commercials and advertisement campaigns surrounding body positivity, they aren’t doing it to be nice and positive, they are doing it entirely to make money.
Dove has doubled down on their body positivity advertising. Why? Because they got a lot of good media attention for their campaigns, and more importantly they had large increases in profits. Indeed, Dove’s advertising endeavors are very two-faced, considering they sell “corrective” products like cellulite cream and skin whitening products.
Moreover, be wary whenever brands advertise their charitable endeavors, for most of the time, their charity is simply a means to gain a favorable image. Consider DoorDash, who spent 5.5$ million dollars to advertise their 1 million dollar donation.
Brands do not care about Black Lives Matter, Pride, #MeToo or body positivity beyond what makes them money. Activism is nothing but a means to part you from your dollar.
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