Progressive values are now becoming the new Nike swoosh to rebrand companies as hip and "woke."
Centuries of institutions who are built on maximizing shareholder value over ethics is now being reframed but perhaps for the wrong reasons.
The most glaring example is the 2017 Pepsi Cola commercial saying that a can of their soda will solve systemic racism in the police force. That's woke capitalism gone bad - a clear case of not seeing the trees for the forest.
The ad begins showing folks at a protest to change societal norms, such as Black Lives Matter. We begin to to see where Pepsi is going wrong right away by showing people celebrating racial inequality like it's a block party.
To put salt in a wound Pepsi underscores the legitimacy of social movements when Kendall Jenner hands a can of Pepsi to a cop in full riot gear - as if racist cops will stop shooting blacks if they drink Pepsi.
This is a mock up of Iesha Evans, a black woman who braved standing up to the police decked out in full riot gear at a BLM protest in Baton Rouge.
Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters
Pepi tried to coop this significant moment showing Kendall giving a Pepsi can to the cops.
The police accepting Pepsi was some bizarre message that if you drink Pepsi, that will end police brutality and racism??
Credit: Business Insider
The monetization of a civil rights movement as some sort of cheap ad ploy upset the public. It was poor taste. Definitely showed how 'unwoke' the Pepsi corporation is.
The people who designed this ad are probably the same suburbanites who are unaware of their own casual racism passed down from their parents' generation - so it's the pot calling the kettle black.
The problem with woke capitalism is when there isn't an underlying understanding of how and why people care about the social justice issues, or environmental quality concerns that motivate consumers to vote with their dollar shopping at Patagonia or eating ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.
When it's just done as a marketing technique, the vibe is shallow and plastic-y. It's like the movie Wrinkle in Time - it felt so artificial the magic in the Madeleine L'Engle novel was made into a cheap thrill that felt like it was created by the monsters the children are fighting against in the novel.
But back to woke capitalism. Patagonia paid their employees while stores were closed during lockdowns as a sign they understood a business isn't just about making profits.
It's about reputation, integrity, and customer loyalty. Respecting the struggle their employees had to go through by no fault of their own was an amazing move.
Their on-site childcare for more than 30 years for employees was also a sign they humanized the work experience.
Another company worth mentioning that does woke capitalism right is the ice cream shop Ben & Jerry's.
Ben and Jerry's called to take down and dismantle white supremacy after the police killing of George Floyd. This wasn't just their attempt to jump on a 'woke capitalism trend;' they supported a congressional bill aimed at studying the effects of slavery and discrimination.
I connect with this personally as well because I grew up living in a homeless shelter and on the streets. Ben & Jerry's partnered with Lifeworks, the shelter I stayed in as a homeless teen, to offer jobs to teens trying to get off the streets who were staying at Lifeworks.
Seeing first hand, how Ben & Jerry's got involved with the Austin community, and tried to give kids a chance who were escaping a lifetime of poverty and abuse was really touching.
Each of these businesses established a brand that may not be in the majority, of giving a damn about their employees, supporting the local communities where their stores are located as well as the environment.
The thing is, a business definitely has to turn a profit more than their operating costs, employee payroll and marketing expenses.
This logic is one used for years to justify Shareholder Primacy.
Shareholder Primacy is a theory in corporate governance holding that shareholder interests should be assigned first priority relative to all other corporate stakeholders.
The shareholder primacy norm was first used by courts to resolve disputes among majority and minority shareholders, and, over time, this use of the shareholder primacy norm evolved into the modern doctrine of minority shareholder oppression.
The doctrine of shareholder's primacy is criticized for being at odds with corporate social responsibility and other legal obligations because it focuses solely on maximizing shareholder profits.
There's a balance between staying 'woke' (I say this in quotes because many people use this word in ways that portray them as anything but woke, like the Pepsi cola commercial) and staying profitable.
If we pollute more than we contribute use cap and trade taxes to pay to dirty the earth so much it's unusable for future generations - well that's just shooting ourselves in the foot.
If companies give out more money than they earn to programs that support equality and sustainability - that's a recipe for disaster as well.
The middle ground is authenticity about being woke and not just using it as a buzz word to generate more SEO for your company's website. Even if you're using the new Google search updates to get more traffic, be real about your business's intention.
Including some provisions that will mitigate the social and environmental impact of a company, and ones that aren't false like a straw man argument but actually beneficial, is the key to progress.
At the same time, with cancel culture being abundant right now, not every attack on companies is justified.
The court of public opinion can be righteous, but humans err, and mob justice can also create shock waves that destroy entire businesses.
Just as there are people on death row who are innocent - being trigger happy on both sides of the aisle isn't a solution.
The think tank, the Roosevelt Institute calls for a federal charter to “create a legal obligation for the corporation to account for the public effects of its actions” and legislation mandating that companies let workers elect “a significant portion” of their board.
Being aware of how dumping toxic sludge into water supplies - as US company Walmart has done both in America and Mexico - can affect the quality of consumer lives should be a given.
I realize many companies will resent any sort of mandate demanding they alter their business model to take responsibility for other people their business affects and at the same time I also see underrepresented groups of people like indigenous tribes in South America sorting through contaminated drinking water due to Pepsi polluting their water supplies.
I think it's worth taking a look to see how we can all do better. Specifically not just a vague marketing slogan about being woke.
What about you? You think it's ok to mandate new policies about your company's affect on the world? Comment below!
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