Corporate voices backing ‘Black Lives Matter’ cause
As tensions flared around the country after George Floyd’s death under a policeman’s knee, protesters received support from an unexpected corner: corporate America.
Companies like Nike, Twitter and Citigroup have aligned themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement.
As Netflix posted on Twitter on Saturday: “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.”
Major companies are often wary of conflict, especially in a polarized time. They tend to be afraid of offending their customers and associating their brands with sensitive subjects.
American advertisements often shy away from addressing political issues, like impeachment, and also steer clear of news stories about violence, drugs and, recently, the coronavirus pandemic.
But after Floyd died Monday in Minneapolis, a wide range of companies began to take much more public stances on racial injustice and police violence.
Speaking out on social issues is often a calculated decision, a form of “values and identity-driven targeted marketing,” said Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. By aligning corporate values with what customers care about, companies are hoping to build a sense of loyalty and a deeper sense of personal connection, he said.
“There’s a general trend toward executives in the C-suite being called out and pressure-tested by consumers who want to know where they stand — there’s an opportunity to differentiate not just on function, on what’s a better mousetrap, but on values,” he said. “It’s smart — they’re taking a stand, hopefully, because it’s moral, but also because they understand the long-term economic game.”
Twitter, which spent much of last week battling President Donald Trump over the warnings and fact-checks it placed on several of his tweets, changed its profile image on the platform to black and added “#BlackLivesMatter” to its description.
Mark Mason, chief financial officer of Citigroup, wrote a public blog post on the company’s website that repeated Floyd’s pleas to the white officer kneeling on his neck: “I can’t breathe.” The advertising agency 72andSunny wrote on Instagram that “white people need to start carrying this burden” of combating racism. Reebok said in a message to “the black community” that it “stands in solidarity with you,” telling its social media followers: “We are not asking you to buy our shoes. We are asking you to walk in someone else’s.”
WarnerMedia brands, including HBO, TBS and the newly introduced HBO Max, changed their Twitter names to #BlackLivesMatter and quoted black novelist James Baldwin: “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
The hashtag also appeared in posts from retailers like Nordstrom, ice cream-maker Ben & Jerry’s and media companies like TikTok. YouTube promised to spend $1 million on social justice initiatives, but it quickly faced criticism that its moderation efforts against racist content have historically been weak.