Don’t Just Slap a Rainbow On It: How to Be a Bold Brand

Happy Pride! This past month has been prime time for brands (the cool ones at least) to unfurl their rainbow flags and show the LGBTQ+ community how much they love them – easy, right? Well, hold your horses (or unicorns) – because while everyone is equal and valid, not all Pride campaigns are. Every year during Pride, there are brands that launch campaigns with good intentions, but horrible execution – such as the M&S changing the meaning of LGBT for a sandwich, or rainbow Listerine. Worse than a bad Pride campaign though is a forgettable one, of which there are many.

While it’s easy to be a jaded queen and throw shade at these brands, the way these campaigns are handled speaks to deeper issues of how cynical consumers can be, particularly in hot button issues. This cynicism, of course, has spread to not just brands, but the platforms on which brands connect to consumers, too. Consider the recent passing of the POFMA legislation in Singapore and a whole slew of data scandals (Cambridge Analytica being the most high profile case). It’s pretty clear that people are becoming less trusting of social media. In fact, it’s gotten to a point where one survey found 57% of respondents expected news they see on social media to be inaccurate.

So in the age of the critical woke consumer, how can brands fight through the undertow of cynicism?

Embrace the good, the bad and the ugly

The key to creating trust, particularly over social media, is authenticity. While this sounds like common sense and is easy to do when things are going well, authenticity takes on a whole new meaning when things go wrong.

As communicators, our first instinct when our clients or brands receive criticism is to downplay the negative. However, in the always-on environment of social media, that’s something brands cannot always do. When faced with legitimate criticism, brands need to own up to their shortcomings – and fast. Nothing is quite as loud as the silence of a brand giving “no comment”.

Take the recent Tosh Zhang incident with Pink Dot this year. While it is debatable whether or not he was a suitable candidate for Pink Dot, the major blow to the Pink Dot brand was the delay in responding to the incident. By the time they put out a full statement to apologise, many other more critical voices were at full volume and they were perceived as just being reactive, rather than being authentically apologetic.

Put down the Kool Aid

One of the phrases we throw around in the Mutant office is “don’t drink the Kool Aid” – which has become a mantra to remind us that while we need to put ourselves in our client’s shoes, we must always remember that we never operate in a vacuum, and we’re being hired to give our opinions and share our expertise (even if it’s not what they want to hear).

What this means is that while rainbow-coloured mouthwash might sound like a fun Pride product, when you set it up among the backdrop of all the other corporate Pride initiatives, it might just leave a bad taste in people’s mouths (heh, see what I did there?)

The best way to combat this is to ensure diverse perspectives are always brought in at the planning stage. Going back to the Listerine rainbow bottle example, you have to wonder whether they brought in someone from within the LGBTQ+ community to give their perspective.

Authenticity? “It do take nerve”

Before you flag the typo here, this is a line adapted from Paris is Burning, an excellent film about the ballroom culture in 80s Harlem. Aside from having iconic catchphrases, there are lessons here that brands can apply when it comes to being authentic. The film shows what the gay and drag scene was like in New York in the 80s, and it’s a celebration of people who, despite the costs and risks, lived their lives out loud.

If a brand does decide to share a strong point of view or embrace a community, it needs to do it fully and unapologetically. Take Nike for example, who must have known the pushback they would receive for the  Kaepernick campaign or the more recent plus-sized mannequins, but they still went ahead regardless. Because their messaging is authentic, and the brand is already well-known for its heart-tugging campaigns and strong moral stances, it works.   

But this can be scary for brands, particularly in Asia – not so much because we have vastly different values than more westernised countries, but rather that brands are more wary of being criticized. A great example of an Asian brand that took the leap was Cathay Pacific with an ad featuring a gay couple. There was pushback from conservative voices in Hong Kong, but they stuck to their beliefs and in the end, the campaign was largely positively received.    

Whether your brand celebrates Pride Month, champions a cause, or is just trying to put out a campaign that breaks through the noise, remember to always bring humanity, empathy and bravery into your planning to keep it authentic.

We can help you regain that social media trust. Write to us at [email protected]

Why Brands Need Social Media Community Guidelines

We’ve likely all excitedly published a post on social media and then quickly clicked the comments only to be horrified by an off-colour message. Be it abusive, racist, homophobic, sexually explicit, or plain ignorant, inappropriate comments can feel like a punch to the gut, and are embarrassing to have underneath your post.

Though these comments sometimes come from your always-inappropriate uncle or a friend with a weird sense of humour, they can also come from trolls – strangers who post incendiary comments just to get a rise of others. And though trolls can (and do!) target posts from regular people, brands with name recognition and large numbers of followers often receive much of their focus. Trolls will work to skew the conversation a brand is hoping to nurture online via inflammatory rhetoric that ignites outrage and shifts focus away from the brand’s message or intent.

The implications of trolling on users and brands

Worryingly, these types of comments can cause users to turn not on the brand, but each other. Suddenly, users will attack and bully those with differing opinions, and these comment threads can devolve into virtual boxing matches that turn personal and can result in real mental and emotional wounds.

There is ample research surrounding the turmoil cyberbullying can bring on a personal level, including increased likelihood to engage in self-harm or suicidal behaviour. But brands, too, can see digital ire move into the real world in very dangerous ways. YouTube headquarters in California was attacked by a female shooter who was upset about the company’s policies in 2018. In the same year, CNN received a pipe bomb in the mail from a man who was disgruntled about their political coverage.

In order to discourage and curtail language that can lead to dangerous behaviour, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have put into place community guidelines that lay out the types of language and visual content users should not use. If users violate these guidelines, they run the risk of being suspended from the platform.

Though social media platforms do follow through and suspend accounts, trolls and cyberbullies are often barely discouraged by these measures due to the fact that if they are suspended, they can simply set up a new account using a new email address. Plus, it sometimes isn’t clear what does and does cross the prohibited content line because everyone has different personal standards, not to mention the fact that sarcasm and dark humour can be hard to discern online.

Strong social media guidelines curtail online vitriol

In order to keep comment sections from turning into cesspools, brands active on social media are now establishing their own community guidelines.

For instance, in March, the British royal family announced social media community guidelines, seemingly as a response to abusive, hateful and threatening comments made toward both Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. The family’s guidelines detail their expectations for courteous and respectful engagement, and clearly state that they will use their discretion to determine if someone is in violation of their standards. Additionally, the famous family’s guidelines establish the actions they may take against those in violation of the guidelines, including deleting comments, blocking users and alerting law enforcement if comments are threatening.

Unfortunately, the existence of such guidelines does not mean that trolls will suddenly clean up their act. But the guidelines do provide brands the opportunity to condemn hate speech, communicate to their followers what their expectations are when it comes to engagement and establish transparent protocols for when and why they delete comments and block users.

If your brand does not already have social media community guidelines in place and is looking to establish a set, here are some things to consider:

  • Be clear in your policies: Revisit your company handbook or human resources policies and use the language regarding the sorts of behaviours that are not tolerated to begin drafting your social media community guidelines.
  • Condemn hate, not criticismThough no one enjoys being criticised, criticism can be useful – especially when brands are hearing directly from their audience and learning how they respond to different messaging. For example, when Pepsi released a campaign featuring Kendall Jenner and tying into the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the response to it was swift and the ad was deemed tone deaf – a lesson that Pepsi needed to learn. Though this type of negative feedback can be harsh, it is very different in nature from comments that are abusive and offensive, and should not be discouraged.
  • Enforce your community guidelines: Once your guidelines are announced and in place, do not be complacent. Your social media teams should monitor comments and enforce the guidelines consistently. After all, there’s no use of putting the guidelines in place if they are only there in theory – you have to practice them, too.

Taking a stand against hate speech and cyberbullying is a just cause, and one that your brand can champion. So if you notice that the comments on your posts make you want to log out, then it’s time to get your community guidelines in place to protect both your brand, your message and your audience.

Need help fighting the trolls? We can help: [email protected]