Cosplaying Woke: The Age of Corporate Pandering
By Emma Burnett
Illustrations by Vivika Sahajpal
features
In the modern Western world, we are witnessing a proliferation of progressive attitudes being adopted by various popular companies. More and more businesses are claiming to be the champions for liberal attitudes, including those related to Feminism, the LGBTQ+ movement, and Black History Month. Yet beneath the marketing façade lies a hypocritical corporate reality, and one which implicates many companies of utilising politically progressive ideas simply to generate profit. Impact’s Emma Burnett explores the variety of liberal attitudes that have been incorporated into company marketing campaigns within recent years and investigates whether such strategies indicate a genuine drive to create social change.
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Traditionally, pandering refers to expressing views for the sole purpose of appealing to someone else. Corporate pandering is a similar phenomenon, but the pandering is committed by large companies, in the name of marketing themselves as ‘woke’ to appeal to certain groups. In the increasingly capitalist Western world, it has become commonplace for large companies to utilise politically engaged marketing campaigns, particularly during global holidays such as Pride Month, Black History Month, and International Women’s Day. it has become commonplace for large companies to utilise politically engaged marketing campaigns, particularly during global holidays such as Pride Month, Black History Month, and International Women’s Day. This phenomenon has sparked an interesting debate about whether corporate pandering is useful for spreading positivity and awareness around such political movements, or whether the capitalist motives behind it undermine the cause.
‘Femvertising’ is often used only when it is convenient or profit-driving Each year, around International Women’s Day, we see an influx of advertising campaigns centred around female empowerment. Whilst it is refreshing to see stereotypes being reversed and rewritten in mainstream media spaces, it can also feel rather faux. ‘Femvertising’, as coined by SheKnows Media, refers to the presentation of feminist values and empowering messages for women and girls in advertising. However, ‘femvertising’ is often used only when it is convenient or profit-driving, such as during International Women’s Day celebrations. Some feel that this approach to marketing is exploitative, as it takes advantage of a marginalised group’s desire to be represented positively – research by SheKnows Media concluded that 52% of women have bought a product because they liked how the brand and its advertising portrays women. Moreover, it is often the case that, despite pro-female advertising strategies, brands do not equally reflect the messages they put out in their own products and corporate structures. Pantene, for example, came under fire for their 2014 ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ campaign, which told women they need not be sorry for speaking their minds, nor for having shiny hair, meanwhile upholding gender norms with their overtly female-targeted cosmetics. Audi India also blundered, with their 2021 IWD campaign ‘#drivethechange’. Their campaign focused on redefining negative stereotypes around women and driving but was met with criticism due to the company’s fundamentally male-dominated corporate structures. International Women’s Day is not a time for corporations to put on a feminist front to make some money – it is a time to reconsider brand values, to change outdated corporate structures to champion women, and to make a change to women’s rights.
