b&b205: How brands use boycotts to make you buy in
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It’s that time of year again! Our 5th annual boycott/black Friday Brunch & Budget episode (we’ve been doing this a long time y’all)! During the most hyped consumer day/weekend of the year, we want to continue to hold you down on how to keep spending your money in a way that aligns with your values.
This year’s episode was inspired by a quote we came across on Rachel Elizabeth Cargle‘s instagram – “Stop letting companies profit off of your insecurities.” Boycotts and polarizing branding have become a more often used tactic corporations use to get our dollars and make us feel “good” about ourselves and quiet any insecurities that we’re not doing enough.
When brands start to align themselves with social/racial/economic justice issues (like Nike & Kaepernick), it can be easy to get swept up and confuse consumerism with call to action.
Whatever you’re doing on this Thanksgiving weekend, take some time to listen as you enter the holiday season so you can start centering your spending on your values.
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Music featured in this episode:
Kaepernick by Too Phily, Rush Shanks, R-Swift
Insecurity T by Jayoung
Slash by Lex Rush
Episode Highlights:
Pam: A stock split is basically a company decides to divide one share into multiple shares. So, for instance, if a stock is worth $300 for one share, a company can decide to divide the one share into three shares so each share is now worth $100, so the total value of your stocks are still the same, but you have more individual stocks to play around with.
Pam: Commodity Activism: You’re supporting a cause at the same time that you’re buying a thing and being a consumer, and so this idea and this concept of commodity activism is very common, but generally companies tend to stay around causes that don’t really alienate major consumer basis.
Dyalekt: I think people conflate ‘doing things that we agree with’ with ‘oh, you share our values’ in all respects. Pam: Right, exactly. And I think that’s where it gets tricky when it comes to being loyal to a brand, or not loyal to a brand, because of an issue that you agree with or don’t agree with.
Pam: You have no control over the way a brand goes, and so to even have this concept of brand loyalty and to have people being loyal to the brand and not to the cause or the reason behind it is where the vagueness really can trap you.
Pam: Where you spend you money is a representation of what you value. Dyalekt: So how do we actually do that, right? Pam: It’s a very big mantra and a very big ask, and it can feel really huge, this idea of spending in alignment with your values, and the thing to remember is it doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be 100%, and it doesn’t have to be all the time. I think that it’s always a work in progress, especially ‘cause your values are also things that shift and change based on these different nuances and specificities that you learn about yourself and your spending and the things that you actually care about.