Anticorporate Activism
-
Upload
karen-russell -
Category
Business
-
view
1.186 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Anticorporate Activism
Anti-corporate Activism
Corporate globalization
• Many corporations now focus more on brand than on product– “Products are made in the factory, but brands
are created in the mind”– Walter Landor, Landor Associates
Nike factoryin Vietnam,2000
• (Nike shoe pic)
Branding
• The physical product is less important than what consumers believe about it
• The brand (more specifically, the image of or attitude customers have toward the brand) is what advertisers are actually selling
Companies understand this
• “There is no value in making things any more. The value is added by careful research, by innovation and by marketing.”
• Phil Knight
• Nike brand pic
Shift in thinking, shift in resources
• If the brand is more important than the product, as a manager you should focus resources accordingly– Sponsorships, packaging, advertising– Distribution and retail channels
• Protest pics
Nike
• Nike divested itself of factories and production workers
• It “sources” its work to contract factories in poor countries where labor is cheap
• The manufacturer is therefore not responsible for the workforce
Which means…
• Manufacturing is devalued
• Spending less money on factories and workers
Pakistani child stitches a Nikesoccer ball, 1998
Nike
• Other companies, like Adidas, followed the market leader– “We closed down everything. We only kept one small
factory which is our global technology centre and makes about 1 percent of total output.”
– Peter Csanadi, Adidas spokesperson
• Adidas logo
Nike sweatshop protests
Protesting layoffs in Indonesia U.S. protest
Protest in the age of branding
• If the brand is what matters, attack the brand– Adbusting or subvertising– Attaching alternative meanings to brand
symbols
• Nike adbusts
Ads can be spoofed
• Example: General Motors• http://current.com/items/
90184685_general-motors-commercial-spoof.htm
Ads can be busted
Undermines not just thebrand but the wholepremise of fashion
Calvin klein adbusts
Adbusting
Kool cigarettes adbust
Ad(PR)busting
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk
• http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/dove-palmoil-action/dove-onslaught-er-hd
What does this mean for PR?
• Defending the brand• Understanding the issues• Reminding management team of
consequences of their decisions
What does this mean to you?
• Everything you and your organization put out there is subject to review, comment, criticism, parody.
• Corporations exist in a context which includes protest, anger, and even hatred