The Hypocrisy of Companies in Activism
My thoughts on the role of for-profit businesses in promoting social change
By: Lydia Tallarini
On the first day of June, when I began seeing companies’ logos swapped out for rainbow versions of their ordinary selves, I had a simple question: “Why?”
Since June was Pride month, I wasn’t surprised to see the changes. But there’s something that still seems off to me: If all of these companies really support the LGBT+ community, what are they trying to accomplish by changing their logos for a month? For right after it became July, everything went right back to normal. I stopped seeing rainbows when I opened Youtube or Pinterest, and it was easy to forget that anything had happened.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to disregard any fundraising or monetary contributions (and the accompanying tax write-offs) made by corporations in June and look closer at the reasons for and implications of this logo-altering phenomenon. To me, it seems that many companies are jumping on the bandwagon of social responsibility and activism.
Part of the problem is that it seems wrong for almost any company to preach about social issues. They’re for-profit organizations, and by now, most of us are probably numb to the list of complaints about them. From their promotion of wasteful and pollutant overconsumption to the seemingly unending human rights violations in sweatshops, there’s a lot to criticize.
Overall, it just feels hypocritical. Although a message can be true even if it comes from a morally corrupt agent, I believe that actions speak louder than words—particularly when the words are highly edited and rehearsed. But still, it’s normal to see high-profile businesses adopting causes that I can’t be convinced that they care about. These are companies that want revenue more than anything else—their efforts have to have an ulterior motive.
So why are they doing it? In my opinion, it’s because people expect companies to care about the world they’re profiting from. To not at least pretend to be socially responsible is anathema to those who are, and this pressure makes the message even more meaningless. The only stances that most companies espouse are ones that are already commonly accepted in their target market, so they aren’t trying to change people’s minds. For the most part, it’s preaching to the choir, and alienating the few who disagree.
Thus corporate activist messaging becomes a combination of shallow marketing and polarization. It’s numbingly disingenuous and hinders reasonable discourse. They just assume that everyone agrees; those who don’t are made to feel that their views aren’t valued since they go against the popular consensus.
Instead, I think activism is best left to individuals and non-profit organizations. Seeing companies halfheartedly joining the activism trend doesn’t make me think that they’re finally waking up to the reality of modern social issues. It just makes me lose respect for them.