Brand Confusion Under The Pressure Of Race

In May 25th, the US police brutal law enforcement led to the death of black people named "Freud". The continuous fermentation of public opinion led to the global BLM Black Lives Matter ANTI RACISM movement. It became another "black sky goose" event facing the brand after the new crown pneumonia. Now the riots caused by the BLM movement are still continuing.

Perhaps it is under the pressure of increasing public opinion that the brand side has begun making various external noises and responses, becoming the most peculiar brand communication action since June.

The earliest response to Freud's death was Nike. In May 29th, Nike released a black and white PPT public service film For Once, Don 't Do It, calling on the public to attach importance to race issues. From the past "Just Do It" to "Don" t Do It, Nike's advertising film has attracted many people's attention.

It is precisely because of the ferment of BLM event that Nike and dead rival Adidas came together. In May 30th, Adidas forwarded Nike's Twitter and said it was moving forward and changing together.

Subsequently, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Pepsi Cola and other major companies began to express their support for the BLM campaign, and many brands changed their heads to black.

As the BLM movement itself becomes more and more intense, the brands start to show a strong desire to survive, and many people think that the BLM movement itself begins to deteriorate.

The first thing to be struck is a variety of products with "whitening" effect.

Although Johnson chairman took the lead in June 2nd to commit 10 million attacks against racism and injustice in the United States, two weeks later, Johnson's two whitening products brands Neutrogena and CleanClear were still condemned by BLM supporters. These two brands all contained "whitening" in the advertisements in the sub districts. Johnson's Bondi band aid has also announced the launch of band aids for different skin colors.

Subsequently, the brand involving black people was also affected. In June 17th, Pepsi's breakfast brand "aunt Jemima" said that the brand name should be adjusted and the black aunt image used for nearly a hundred years to remove the support for the BLM campaign.

Aunt Jemima was founded in 1800s, and its classic brand image originated from a former black slave. The protesters thought it was a disguised support for the black slave system.

Uncle Ben, a fast food rice brand founded in 1964 under Marx's name, also said it was considering modifying its brand name and image. The name "Uncle Ben" comes from an African American farmer in Dezhou. The image is from a chef in Chicago. It has been pointed out that there are "Uncle" and "aunt" names in the South because the public does not want to call African Americans "Mister" or "Lady".

Established in 1961, the American sugar syrup brand, Mrs. Butterworth, used the transparent packaging of simulated women in the bottle modeling. However, because of the black syrup, the protesters thought the packaging implied the black's service to the white people.

Colgate's "black toothpaste" is lying in the gun, under the pressure of public opinion, Colgate also made a statement to the "black toothpaste" brand, logo, packaging made a major change.

In June 27th, L'OREAL group issued a statement announcing that the words "whitening", "white" and "bright white" should be deleted from all products that improve skin color, because enterprises are "committed to all skin color". Subsequently, many cosmetic brands such as Estee Lauder and Unilever have indicated that they will expand their chroma selection and recruit more black employees.

Recently, CK has launched a set of "shocking" print ads. The poster was taken by a large black female model. The model gathered many "politically correct" elements. She was not only a black man, a big model, but also a transgender, lesbian and actor.

With the development of events, social networking advertising has become another "disaster area".

In June 26th, Unilever announced that in view of the unfriendly atmosphere in the social network, the company will stop advertising on the social media platforms such as Facebook in the United States before the end of the year. In June 26th, the coffee giant Starbucks also announced that all social media advertising should be suspended to protest against these social platforms' actions against hate speech.

Coca-Cola also announced that it would stop social media advertising around the world for at least 30 days before July 1st, but Coca-Cola also clarified that it did not want to join the team that boycotted Facebook, but would suspend advertising for some time. At present, according to incomplete statistics, more than 160 companies have suspended advertising on Facebook.

At this point, the BLM movement has been out of control. Recently, Yale University has changed its name (CancelYale) to the Twitter Search because the name of Yale University is from Elihu Yale, not only a slave owner, but also a black slave dealer. The Hollywood classic "gone with the wind" was also taken off by HBO Max, because the plot was launched under the civil war and "beautified the southern part of slavery".

What is even more curious is that some of the online supporters began to argue that Beethoven was black, and that Beethoven's "black blood" made his music creative talent.

To sum up, under the BLM movement's "black swan", many brands passively fall into a public opinion whirlpool. All kinds of renaming and changing logo show the strong survival desire of brands in the face of racism, showing us a "long live" brand delusion behavior reward.

For the brand, there are three ways to deal with it: 1, cater for the "political correctness" trend, join the BLM queue, cater to the public sentiment; 2, stick to their own views, adhere to the brand (on racial issues) independence, get the recognition of independent people; 3, do not take the initiative to voice outside, follow up other brand actions to protect themselves, but at the same time lose the right to voice.

Of course, no matter which kind of choice can not be perfect, under the huge social controversy, the brand can never satisfy everyone, and the conflict between habit and handling all kinds of social views will become the way of survival of the brand in today's and future public opinion environment.