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