Brands shouldn’t gag creators in the current political landscape
The news is a dumpster fire. Between far-right protests in the UK, a devastating conflict that continues to rage on in the Middle East and escalating political violence, human rights debates and division across the US, only one thing’s for certain: the world has never felt more divided.
And this division is being echoed across the relationship between brands and talent. Take US late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who has been suspended by ABC and parent company Disney over his comments about the response to the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
Or Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, who has resigned over a row with Unilever about the brand’s social activism.
Celebrities and influencers are under increasing pressure to show up for certain political movements, being vocal in their support or condemnation of a particular side. Simultaneously, brands are wary of posing any tentative opinion for fear of commercial repercussions.
But this dichotomy will have big consequences for PR. A blanket rule of ‘we can’t work with X because they once posted about Y’ is going to do real harm in delivering effective collaborations. It’s damaging for the creator community to be penalised for writing about what they feel passionate about, and it will be damaging for brands that’ll start to feel faceless and out of touch.
So what’s the solution?
Broadly, we need to move to a model where we can hold political opinions of creators separately from the work co-created with a brand. As companies, we can’t gag the people with the biggest digital footprint. That’s playing into a worrying move towards censorship.
Instead, we need to consider the nuance of each situation.
Do the due diligence. Monitor the online conversations around your brand to truly understand your audience. You’ll immediately be able to tell how connected your brand is to a certain issue and whether you risk potential blowback through a talent partnership. More often than not, you’ll find that the risk is low.
Communicate with your talent. A collaboration with talent is meant to feel like a partnership, and part of that is keeping them fully in the loop. It’s your job to communicate any concerns you have with them, and together you can decide the best course of action.
Don’t take the social out of social media. There are no signs of the online discourse slowing down and, in many cases, we don’t want it to. There’ll always be people sharing their opinions in your comments and, yes, this may invite some negative sentiment, but you’ll never be totally risk-free, and you can’t shut down exciting opportunities over a handful of critical responses.
The importance of standing up for what you believe in has never been more important in today’s world, and there’s a real opportunity for brands to champion this rather than playing it too safe and risk losing out.
This originally appeared in PR WEEK.