Stories about President Trump so dominate the news that brands in search of a traffic bump need to find their place in that narrative. Some corporate leaders — like the Yuengling owner, Dick Yuengling Jr., and the Under Armour chief executive, Kevin Plank — have expressed support for the president’s business policies in interviews. But when it comes to viral marketing, the resistance is hot right now.
The trend can draw attention to activist messaging, but it can also dilute, deflect and distract from the cause, leading audiences away from the hard work of political action and civic organization and toward the easy comfort of a consumer choice.
Thinx is one of the more outspoken Trump-resisting companies, but it is not alone in wrapping its brand identity in the aesthetics of protest. When Emily Weiss, the creator of the makeup line Glossier, attended the Women’s March in January, she held a protest sign that doubled as an ad — “WE’RE IN IT TOGETHER” printed over a glossy photograph of models’ intertwined fingers and emblazoned with the Glossier “G” — then shared an image with her 200,000-plus Instagram followers.
Designers at last month’s New York Fashion Week reversed the game, refashioning the runway as a protest space. Robert James, a purveyor of $1,700 suits, had his models hold signs that read “#NotMy Govt” and “#FightFascism,” while the label Private Policy painted models’ faces with words including terrorist and refugee.
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Ben Sklar for The New York Times
Even 84 Lumber, a company owned by the Trump supporter Maggie Hardy Magerko, mined the mood of resistance with a Super Bowl ad viewed as critical of President Trump’s immigration policies. Ms. Magerko said she hoped to recruit potential employees in their 20s.
Such statements are not without their risks to companies’ bottom lines. Though political marketing by Thinx stands to stir up excitement among its most loyal customers, the company has also heard from some who’d prefer their period panties without the politics. (After all, conservative women bleed, too.) So just as liberal pundits and politicians have stressed the need to reach across the aisle, Thinx is hoping to expand by staging pop-up events in red states where it has never focused before, with a dual aim of pushing product and opening “hearts and minds.” (First up: Missouri.)
Still, Thinx’s resistance-themed strategy works because its target demo — young women willing to ditch their tampons and shell out $24 to $39 for one pair of underwear — probably already shares those political sympathies. More damaging to the brand is a recent report from the fashion site Racked maintaining that Thinx’s internal company culture is less feminist than its marketing campaigns. Ms. Agrawal recently called the claims “unfounded” but stepped down as the company’s chief executive.
As Mr. Plank of Under Armour recently discovered, the biggest risk in the newly politicized marketing space is in offending the core consumers who drive the cultural conversation around its wares. When Mr. Plank called Mr. Trump “an asset,” it didn’t sit well with brand ambassadors like Stephen Curry and Misty Copeland, or the customers they’re paid to attract. The conflict caused a media sensation, and the stars prevailed: Mr. Plank walked back his Trump endorsement in a full-page ad in The Baltimore Sun.
Companies may be drawn to the resistance out of obligation or opportunity, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily assets to the cause.
Political slogans that ricochet across the internet can be flattened once they’re co-opted. In a now-infamous February exchange, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, cut off Senator Elizabeth Warren for reading a letter by Coretta Scott King in a debate over Jeff Sessions. Mr. McConnell’s rebuke — “nevertheless, she persisted” — went viral. Three days later, Reebok’s website was offering a T-shirt featuring the phrase. Ms. Warren’s political argument — that Mr. Sessions was not qualified to be attorney general because of a history of racism — was repurposed as an inspirational workout slogan.
By the time I found the merchandise, the shirt was sold out. But the corporate messaging remained: “As a women’s-first brand, we stand behind the Women’s March and believe we have the resources and platform to contribute to the cause in a meaningful way.” Reebok invited me to submit an email address to “stay updated on all our women’s stories.” Instead I received a 15-percent-off coupon for my next order.
And so political outrage is distilled into slogans that get printed on T-shirts that direct our attention away from politics and send us clicking through the virtual racks of a multinational corporation.
All of this political branding came to a head during the recent International Women’s Day, when feminist organizations, including leaders of the Women’s March, called for women to strike to raise awareness for women’s labor causes. On this “Day Without a Woman,” women were urged to take the day off from work, avoid shopping and to wear red in solidarity. A branding bonanza ensued. On Instagram, Morton Salt’s girl mascot exited the logo: “Changing into something red,” the caption explained. (Morton Salt is a subsidiary of K+S, a German chemical company whose top executives are all men.) The sportswear designer Tory Burch also chose the day to start her new “Embrace Ambition” campaign, a kind of “Lean In” rehash but with more celebrity endorsements and greater integration with Tory Burch products. And United Talent Agency, a news release told me, observed the day “by holding off-site events for its female employees in its offices in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.”
These days, even a labor strike can be corporatized and repurposed as P.R.
The typical refrain from brands that take on a cause is that they are “using their platform” to “raise awareness” about an issue. But the internet has complicated the transaction. Modern news audiences are bombarded with too much information, and right now, it all seems to be news for or against President Trump. Brands that enter the fray aren’t so much “raising awareness” as they are jostling for their own messaging to be seen amid the rush of signals.
Mr. Trump’s election has sparked great interest in civic engagement — joining community groups, organizing protests, showing up at town hall meetings. The resistance brand presents another option: Buy this thing, not the other. Is that the kind of awareness that needs to be raised?
